NFF Must Not Owe Super Eagles’ New Coach His Salary

As reactions continue trailing confirmation of the appointment of Portuguese tactician, Jose Peseiro as new head coach of the Super Eagles, a survey has revealed that Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) must not owe him his monthly salary.

The survey, which unfolded details of Peseiro’s biography and track records as a coach, revealed at length that the NFF would be making a big mistake if they allow their notorious manner of owing coaches extend to the new appointee.

Megasportsarena.com reports that this comes against the backdrop of reports that the Eagles’ immediate past coach, Gernot Rohr has sent a reminder to the NFF about salaries he was being owed before the recent termination of his contract.

However, a different scenario played out with the female national team, Super Falcons, when their Swedish gaffer, Thomas Dennerby unceremoniously walked out of the job due to unpaid wages.

The NFF have now been warned that they could be heading for an ending similar to that of Dennerby should they allow a repeat of their notorious manner of owing coaches continue with Peseiro.

This is mostly based on revelations that he has a history of not lasting long at various duty posts he has held at national team and club levels in his years as a coach.

Incidentally, the Eagles’ job is only his third national team duty post, as most of his previous tenures have been at clubs in Portugal, Spain, Greece, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

His biggest achievement to date was taking Sporting Lisbon of Portugal to the UEFA Cup final in 2005, years after serving as an assistant coach at Real Madrid of Spain.

Peseiro, who played as an attacker during his active days, also took charge of FC Porto of Portugal at club level, as well as Panathinaikos of Greece among others.

However, he passed through three controversial tenures at club level, which NFF’s moguls should take note of, as they prepare to work with him after the impending Africa Cup of Nations.

First was when he resigned at Rapid Bucharest of Rumania due to a disagreement over wages; then came very short terms with Sporting Braga of Portugal (June 2012 to March 2013) and Al-Ahly of Egypt (October 2015 to January 2016).

However, it is at the level of national teams’ coaching that the NFF will have to be very wary of their dealings with Peseiro, as his only previous two assignments on that scale ended abruptly.

The precedent was with Saudi Arabia, where Peseiro lasted only two years before falling out with football lords in the oil rich Middle East nation (2009 to 2011).

That, though, was better than his immediate past job, which should be most poignant for the NFF to note, as Peseiro resigned as head coach/technical director of Venezuela over unpaid wages.

His tenure lasted from February 2020 to August 2021, as he threw in the towel on being owed for a year, even after frenetic appeals from Federation de Venezuela Futbol (FVF).

His resignation also came at a point they were preparing for three World Cup qualifiers in September, which should serve as a strong warning to the NFF that they dare not take Peseiro for granted.

It will also interest Nigerian football fans to know that Peseiro is strict and principled, maybe stubborn, as he insisted on being paid in euros and refused to withdraw his resignation after a plea from the FVF.

FVF president, Jorge Giminez recounted: “We received a letter from the technical director terminating his contract.

“We spoke with him at night, we made him understand and explained that it is quite difficult to accept it (but he insisted on leaving).”