JOSE PESEIRO, THE NFF AND HOW HE BECAME SUPER EAGLES COACH

Sequel to the interview of Mr. Jolly Agu (a football agent that claims he is the agent of Jose Peseiro) and conducted by Sunday Agunbiade (Mr. VAR) on the Sports World platform, I have made my commentaries here.

It is clear that the main people in the NFF who were responsible for this deal have more questions to answer regarding the way they bundled in Jose Peseiro and contracted him.

Firstly, Jolly Agu said he brokered this deal which is quite interesting. But his personal testimonies while answering important questions reveal he might not be the main brain behind the NFF – Peseiro deal.

He failed to mention the names of his contacts he worked with in the NFF to broker this deal, which makes it still unclear. So far, Pinnick claims to had given us Jose Peseiro and made Nigerians to believe he did it to the best interest of our football.

Where it seemed to baffle me was where in some instances, ‘the guest seems to forget he is telling the public he is the agent of Jose Peseiro’ and is rather ‘heard lamenting about the performances of the coach, the AFCON, and the World Cup qualifiers ahead of us.’

I continue to ask this pragmatic question while trying to be resourceful with my writing. *Why did the former NFF President contract this coach and made press briefings with claims that he was recommended to the NFF by high-level and special football stakeholders from abroad?* This guy’s submission totally disclaims all that talk.

He talks about a certain $20,000 that was to be tipped to a certain person monthly in this said deal. That also raises concerns if the initiators of this contract had ‘sincerity of purpose’ while negotiating this deal. Mr. Jolly clearly says he refused that arrangement and the coach became his enemy. Nothing is wrong with having cuts in deals but not in outrageous ways.

With his submissions, one could understand that this person might have not directly negotiated this deal on behalf of the coach but might have only facilitated this deal. Facts in his assertion are that Peseiro was telling him what the NFF was saying at given points, and not the other way round, which is the norm as an agent.

Jolly insists he was not paid according to the agreement he had with Jose Peseiro. He and Peseiro certainly had verbal agreements which are also legally binding if he could present proofs anywhere. The good fact remains that he doesn’t talk about any percentages owed him by the NFF.

Consequently, the NFF definitely shouldn’t keep quiet on this subject for too long, not only because Nigerians are again crying for a new coach for the Super Eagles, but because keeping quiet for too long has warranted Mr. Jolly Ogu opening up, which puts the NFF in unclear books on this subject. Sooner or later, a new head coach for the Super Eagles must be employed again. Would it be by using these same recruitment flaws that have been on the ground for a good period and have now proven to be a failure?

My analyses on this subject are not meant to target any personal individual or organization. I am publicly being resourceful, since everyone in the football system agrees that we got it wrong with this short-change of coaches from Sunday Oliseh, Samson Siasia, Gernot Rohr – Augustine Eguavoen to Jose Peseiro.

Austin Akpehe

Executive Chairman of Galaxy Sports Development China and Galaxy Sports Academy Nigeria