As Nigerians continue to lament over the failure of the National U-23 team in the race to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games due to the Coach, Salisu Yusuf’s failure to prepare the team, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) says it will soon introduce a new method of appointing coaches for the various teams.
The tournament also serves as a qualifier for the men’s football event of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, meaning that Nigeria will be missing out on the event for a second consecutive time.
Fans are blaming the defeat on NFF, which approved the recommendation of its Technical and Development Sub-Committee to appoint Yusuf, who was banned by FIFA for one year in 2018 after he was caught on camera accepting bribe from men, who posed as football agents, to select two players for his Morocco 2018 African Nations Championship squad.
For the umpteenth time in his spell with the national teams, Salisu is now wanted out of the job after, the bribery scandal that rocked his reign in 2018 among other failures to deliver the ultimate prize in competitions.
He was reappointed to head the U-23 and the Eagles B teams and also deputize Jose Peseiro in the Super Eagles in April 2023, and barely a month in charge, he has failed in two major assignments.
“Salisu Yusuf will finish our national teams if we are not careful. He has always been poor but I wonder how he gets the national team job,” journalist Israel Bankole wrote.
Another journalist, Andrew Randa, who had expressed fears after the scoreless first leg in Abuja, also suggested the coach should voluntarily quit his role as coach.
“Another failure in the Olympics. NFF will have to take this and reflect on what could have been. Salisu also needs to walk away. I know the U-23 is the ministry’s team, but Salisu was to prepare the team. No excuses,” Randa wrote.
A concerned fan, Henry Usha, also queried the NFF for handing Salisu the jobs despite his questionable credentials.
“I don’t blame Salisu, I blame those that gave him the job after a series of failures as a coach. A seventh-place finish at Enugu Rangers in the league relegated Kano Pillars, failed at CHAN qualifiers and now, the U-23 AFCON qualifiers. He should go and retire.”
On his perpetual appointments with the NFF, veteran analyst Desmond Ekwueme described the coach as fortunate but unfit to lead any of the national teams.
“Despite his unimpressive performance, he keeps getting appointments and shuttling among the U-23 Eagles, home-based Super Eagles, and Super Eagles,” Ekwueme began.
