Football

Nigeria not ready yet to lift World Cup — Siasia

Published

7 years ago

April 30, 2018

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Former coach of the Super Eagles, Samson Siasia, says he do not see Nigeria winning the World Cup yet because of the country’s lackadaisical attitude to preparations.

In a recent interview, the 50-year old former international player said though Nigerians are passionate about football but those managing the sport do not manage it well.

“I don’t think we are that prepared to win the World Cup. We are not in that category yet; we aren’t in that place to win it. We have a very young team with some old players. I don’t think this we are going win the World Cup with this Super Eagles team.”

He said the main challenge facing the national team is their lack of preparation. “They all come down from their various clubs, stay for about three days together before playing games. As a young team, it will be very difficult to expect so much from them. Why we did well in 1994 was because the same team that did not qualify in 1990 were still the ones that was in 1994 squad.”

He said the present crops of players are not allowed to bond well because of their engagement to their various foreign clubs.

“I have played and coached couple of teams, the preparation is the major headache and challenge. Take for instance, the Flying Eagles just came in about two weeks ago and they have a qualification game to play next month. So, tell me, how do you expect such a team to do well?

“We need time to prepare. We need to start on time. That’s where the NFF is not doing a good job. They have to make some team start on time to prepare well. What they do is psyche coaches and nothing else. But if you don’t prepare well, how do you win a game? The other teams you are playing against, they’ve started preparing four years for the Olympics. So, we need to change our ways otherwise we won’t go anywhere.

On the management side, Siasia said things are getting worse than they used to be, especially the issue of remunerations for coaches.

“You have players that are in camp, even when they win games, like the under 17 and the woman teams, they don’t pay them. Where do you expect them to get that motivation from? You know everything you do in life, there must be some kind of compensation or encouragement. We don’t have it. So, it’s very difficult for teams to win games without encouragement.”