Avoid Distractions, SWAN Tells NFF, Rohr

The Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) calls on the Super Eagles Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr and the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to avoid any distractions and remain focused on the objective of delivering at the World Cup,National Daily learnt.

Our admonition comes against recent statements credited to Mr Rohr, alleging that some journalists were being induced by players’ agents to influence his team selection, a development we find to be spurious and inauspicious.

Having played through the qualifiers for the World Cup and being now on the verge of the competition proper, we find it somewhat disturbing for Mr Rohr to stir the hornet’s by making such allegations with the tendency of creating bad blood with the sporting press and distracting the focus of the team from the task at hand.

While we agree that like in every profession, there could be quacks, for which the present administration has embarked on a registration process to eliminate, there is nothing strange in sports journalists all over the world bringing the attention of a team’s management to certain players whose performances they deem fit for national call.

On the part of the sporting press, we are fully committed to the best relations and promotion of the team in furtherance of our collective national interest, while we will not also mortgaged the journalistic ideals of factual reporting and constructive criticisms.