Former Nigerian footballer, Victor Nosa Ikpeba, who played as a forward for both club and country, has faulted his former team-mate and current coach of the Super Eagles, Sunday Oliseh’s claim that his team’s early exit from the ongoing African Nations Championships was largely caused by the Nigeria Football Federation.
It was reported earlier that coach Oliseh, blamed lack of financial motivation for his team’s shock exit, adding that he had no other choice but to spend his own money to keep the team together. Speaking on Brila FM’s Sports Machine programme on Thursday, Ikpeba said rather than trading blames, Oliseh should have gone the extra mile to see that his team succeeded in Rwanda instead of blaming the NFF for his woes.
"It’s unfortunate to hear the comments from Oliseh and some of the players, on issues of motivation. I think the NFF has done a good job, they took the team to Jo’burg (Pretoria) for preparation before the tournament," Ikpeba stated.
The former African Footballer of the year argued that the financial crises plaguing the NFF was well known to everybody and regardless of that challenge, the Golden Eaglets and the U-23 team both went out of their way to win laurels in the competition they were entered for.
"We all know he Federation has financial issues, so, instead of complaining about motivation, they should take an example from the U-17 and U-23. They had financial problems yet won the tournaments; we shouldn’t forget that Siasia’s mother was kidnapped," Ikpeba said.
Ikpeba advised Oliseh to promptly shift focus on planning ahead for the 2017 AFCON qualifiers against Egypt rather than playing the blame game over the debacle in Rwanda.
"Our coaches should think about what they can do for their country first. It is not as if Oliseh was condemned to win the CHAN, so even if the team have not advance to the next stage, he should be thinking about the Egypt AFCON ties which is very important.
When we won the Olympics in 1996 we had financial problems, sometimes we should get behind this problems and be focused and do the job for Nigeria," Ikpeba concluded.
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