Emmanuel Amunike's Social Media Appointment

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By Tobi Adepoju (Oga Nla)

It is important that we educate ourselves, especially for the sake of our Football fans.

I have read different comments about Finidi George’s appointment relating it to the “Exclusive News” that Emmanuel Amunike has been appointed as the Super Eagles coach. I want to believe the media propaganda was to farm unfair criticism of the Nigeria Federation Federation (NFF).

Let’s be clear and embrace education, there was no time the NFF appointed Amunike as the Super Eagles coach, it was all media speculation. When the news went viral, I put out a post for the media to stop the purported news.

If the NFF will appoint a coach for any of the National Teams they have their official communications channels. It is unprofessional for the section of the media to claim the news was official or from the NFF Communications Department.

As stated in my previous post, I don’t have issues with media speculation and rumour, we all have respected sources. I must also state that sources are human beings they are not robots, on a few occasions they can get it wrong especially if there is a change the source was not aware of after the dissemination of information.

The NFF Technical Committee met several times to discuss the vacant Super Eagles job and two options were listed; Foreign or indigenous coach, and the final decision depends on the NFF Executives’. The NFF Technical Committee listed foreign and domestic coaches (At least three each) for the job. At this point, the media propaganda kicked in.

All the coaches listed by the NFF Technical Committee applied for the job. I don’t want to dig up and discuss the lobbies that happened behind the scenes, I don’t want to indict anyone unfairly. This is my personal opinion, I don’t think lobbying for a dream job is a sin. Despite our football’s poor state, the Super Eagles’ job is still one of the biggest in Africa and a dream job of many coaches.

During the period the lobbyists were at work, the NFF didn’t call or appoint any of the coaches. These coaches were just hopeful.

For education’s sake, this is the process to appoint a Super Eagles coach from my understanding of reporting Nigerian Football as a journalist since 2010;

1. The NFF Technical Committee will meet and put up a shortlist after applications, recommendations, interviews, and many more.

2. The Chairman of the NFF Technical Committee who is a Member of the NFF Executives will transfer the NFF Technical Committee final shortlists to the NFF Secretariat (NFF Secretary-General).

3. The NFF Secretary-General will transfer the NFF Technical Committee shortlists/recommendations to the NFF President and other Executive Members and he will call for a meeting between the NFF Executives and the Chairman of the Technical Committee to discuss and reach a final decision.

On this subject, the NFF Executives and the NFF Technical Committee Chairman met on Sunday night (As reported yesterday), it was their first official meeting. At times, there could be a deadlock and another meeting will be scheduled, but after hours of deliberation, and considering a lot of factors they (NFF) settled for Finidi George.

After the meeting the Chairman of the NFF Technical Committee would communicate the NFF Executive Committee’s final decision to his Technical Committee Members and also to the coach approved/appointed.

After the meeting on Sunday night, I received all the information from a reliable source, but I was diplomatic with my words when I posted about it on Monday morning.

A coach has been appointed and I hope the media will learn how to handle speculation and rumour. There’s a big difference between rumours and official announcements.