The technical director of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Augustine Eguavoen has thrown his weight fully behind Super Eagles’ new coach, Eric Chelle, in his choice of players for the upcoming FIFA 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Sports247 reports that, with the Eagles’ camp set to open this weekend in Kigali, Rwanda, ahead of their potentially decisive battle away to The Amavubi, Chelle has cut his original shortlist of 39 players.
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Just as it was when the provisional list was made public some weeks back, another barage of criticism is trailing Chelle’s decision to leave out Ahmed Musa, Kelechi Iheanacho and a couple of other previously highly rated national team stars.
However, in contrast with initially bandied stories that Eguavoen equally questioned the absence of Iheanacho’s name on the reduced roster, the former national team captain assured that he would never question the coach’s prerogative.
The ex-international right full back, who was fondly called ‘Cerezo’ during his heyday, pointed out that one of the lessons he has gained in four years as the NFF’s technical director is to never interfere with the duties of the national team’s coach; so that he can maintain standards and remove any room for excuses.
Eguavoen declared emphatically: “I want to make Nigerians always get a clarity of something. I’ve been opportune to be the technical director now for four years, and I still have two years to go in that position. I’ve attended FIFA seminars and workshops, both online and on-sight, physically.
I ask questions a lot, and they made it clear to me that a senior national team coach, anywhere in the world, has the choice and final say on who he wants to be on his team.”
‘Egu’ then spoke in specific terms about the relationship between Chelle and NFF officials as well as the technical department and committee, all of which he stressed must never interfere with the coach’s roles and responsibilities.
“We can interact, but we can not interfere. If he says no, then it’s NO. That is why you can fire the senior national team coach at any time. At that level, it’s about winning. From there downwards its about development. So, I will say, Eric Chelle took his time to put these names together. If he wants to discuss it, that’s fine, but he has the final say,” Eguavoen concluded
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