Former Nigerian forward, Jonathan Akpoborie has revealed that the move by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to sack Gernot Rohr few weeks to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations may not bring an end to issue affecting the team.
Rohr has come under the microscope after nervy performance against Cape Verde, where the Super Eagles played out a 1-1 draw to qualify for the knockout stages of the qualifiers.
Reacting to the development, the former Wolfsburg star told Completesports.com that the NFF must be guided with certain principles before embarking on sacking Rohr.
He believed that sacking the German tactician may not be an end to the poor display of the Super Eagles even if a new coach is announced.
Read Also: Exclusive: Sports Ministry Backs NFF To Sack Super Eagles’ Coach, Rohr
“It’s quite unfair for the Nigeria Football Federation to want to sack Rohr with just five weeks to the commencement of the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon. Let’s be realistic, what magic will you expect from the new coach that will be appointed within the short period of time.
“The truth is, sacking Rohr now may not be an end to Super Eagles considering the fact that the NFF has always failed to objectively discharge their own responsibility on him.”
Rohr, who was appointed head coach of the Super Eagles in August 2016, and has led the team in 54 international, winning 28 of those matches including a third-place finish at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
17 Comments
Pls tell them Apob.
Nigeria is a country where government won’t pay you salary or perform their own function by building roads, infrastructure, security but except citizens to be at their best behavior and productivity..
You want to sack rohn when you are known for not paying salaries.. yet he is qualifying Nigeria for tournament, meeting his targets .. Yuu want sweet football like what Brazil and england play.. do you provide the basics required for them to excel. You make them play in poor stadiums, yet you want tiki taka football.. if you like sack rohn without solving The internal problems we are not going anywhere
I have never one day believe that Rohr is our problem because the bigger picture is still there even if Rohr goes.
Is players paid bonus and entitlements after match? The answer is NO
Is the coach and his crew owed months of salaries and other entitlements? The answer is YES
Is Rohr the reason why the NFF and sport Ministry is corrupt? The answer is NO
Is Rohr the reason why our U17, U20 and U23 is dead? The answer is NO
Is Rohr the reason why we play at that cassava plantation stadium in Lagos? The answer is NO
Is Rohr the reason why NPFL is a laughing stock even within west Africa? The answer is NO
I can go on and on, but let’s stop here. Is foolishness to think that Rohr is the problem of Nigerian football. I support Nigerian coaches but let them try themselves with Local clubs within the country and Africa like finidi. And they should get the appropriate certifications required by FIFA. Not sitting down idle waiting only for Rohr to fail and they will take over.
I don tire for this rohr matter,rohr has been told to resign due to security issues,fans attacked the super eagles bus after the cape verde game, chanting rohr must go,he has been warned that fans are not happy with him,but he doesn’t want to leave,I will advise NFF to leave him to play WC qualifier ,heaven help him should we loose or draw at home,only God knows what will happen to him that day.he is a stubborn man and will continue to play negative foitba and poor selection.i have already removed my mind from this nation’s cup, osimehn is injured ,,bad players and tired legs everywhere.bad coach etc.
It is not only today that people voice their frustration on issues like this. U also fall for that yeye excuse they NFF gave? We all know those people are sponsored to do that. Its very obvious people who are not happy with Rohr due to personal gains are the one pushing for his sack. They are now clamouring for local coach to come and use the national team to market their players which they were unable to do with Rohr.
disgraceful, all individuals involved in running da NFF have lost minds. Now they are going to bring another individual, who is going to spend his time struggling.
Nigeria has always been like this. At least since I grew up and started paying attention to national issues. And nothing will change in the years to come. We will still owe coaches and players. We will play on cassava plantations. NPFL will still be what it is. But some coaches in the past managed all these well and gave the fans something to be happy about. Westerhof did it in 1994. Bonfere did it in 1996. Siasia did it on numerous occasions with the junior and Olympic teams. Amodu did it. And even Keshi did it as recently as 2013. Rohr doesn’t seem cut out for that. So he should go! We fans can’t wait until things are right before we start enjoying good football and getting good results. A good roasted dog meal tasty. But before the long process finishes, our mouth shouldn’t stay empty. That’s exactly what it is now.
One day this coach will leave, everybody eye go clear. For Me Rohr is doing a great job despite nff still owing him and players. Making thing difficult for the man. Chai Africa who do una this juju?
I never knew it was his unpaid salaries that made him kept CHUKWUEZE on the bench. I never knew it was his unpaid salaries that makes him stingy with substitutions. Oh lets I forgot it was his unpaid salaries that made him recall a heavy duty(Ighalo) to the national team
Lol….Chukwueze should be some Ronaldo.
I never knew that you don’t know that Chukwuezr just returned from injury and played only few minutes of football before the international break.
Rohr is glaringly knowing for Technical and Tactical ineptitude ,these are obviously affecting our football. NFF lapses are also indirectly and directly dwindling fortunes of SE.
I hope NFF will do the needful at the right time to avoid unwanted outing in AFCON in 2022
@ Micheal, kindly note that Rohr did not refuse to go. He has agreed to leave but not without you people paying him what is due him as contained in terms of agreement. If you so much love and care for super eagles, reach out to NFF, help them settle Rohr(because that’s the challenge they are facing at the moment) and see if the man will not go the next day.
Since 2015,no body have heard of U17 (progress in Nigeria). Who is handling it and what have you guys done to that effect. Don’t even tell me it’s different from super eagles because I remember back then between 2013-2016 when people where calling for Iheanacho(then U17) and co to be called into the then ‘super chickens’.
How about other age grade football and even the CHAN team that our ‘local assistance coach’ ought to handle. Local league NPFL nkor??
Na only Rohr una get power reach.
Remind me of any match that SE struggled to play in Uyo like They did in your Lagos stadium.
They won all their away match (what did that tell you?, get a good pitch). But you prefer to twart their efforts with bad pitch and unnecessary pressure.
Rohr might have his weakness just like every other individual but until we address the basic issues, sacking him will not solve the problem.
You that said we survived in 1994 and so on, can you compare the government and football of then with this 21st century? Even the Keshi you guys are boasting of, have you forgotten that you booked his flight ticket back home even before the final match. Even the quarter final with CIV that year, you all and Ivorians believed and boasted they were going to fry the ‘super chikens’. God heard the cry of Keshi and his team and vindicated them. What happened after then, Nigeria did not qualify for 2015 and 2017 edition.
Talking about Chukwueze being benched, don’t forget that the two matches were played with 3-5-2 formation of which Chukwueze doesn’t fit in. Simon is more defensive and has more stamina than Chukwueze. If you watch those matches carefully you will see that our opponents were sitting back to catch up with us on counter. Don’t forget that it’s Rohr that brought him and he has been a regular stater. Can I still remind you that some of us have been criticizing Chukwueze that he is too direct and easily predictable by the opponents?
Well, let’s see how it goes!!
But it will be fair if we tackle other issues surrounding our football (from NPFL to our age grade football, NFF, good pitch, players and coach welfare etc) with the same energy we are using to tackle Rohr.
Thank you.
Thank you HMC for this. Anyone that really understands football will know why Rohr played the way he did against Cape Verde.
@HMC, you are an intelligent person…… your comment summed it all…… stay blessed
Nigeria is the problem of Nigeria, God so bless Nigeria that He didn’t give Nigeria natural disasters but Nigeria look for behavior disaster, every federal minister, governors and all executives plus NFF need medications five times a day to support their behaviors, they all need to live in a behavioral homes with most Nigeria, most Nigeria don’t have good behavior, this is only country in the world that can’t sustain success, they enjoy failure how long will you keep this bad behavior in your life and you wonder why are you not going forward. They want Rohr sack it take foolishness to sackRohr and that might be the same of SE
Rohr is a good coach, but some issues like bad stadia, bad adminstration from nff, politics in selection of stadium to be used in prescuting our home matches, also contributed in the down fall and unhappily form of our dear super eagles. Nff should go back to it drawing board and ratify whatever they feel that maybe issues that is setting back our eagles instead of moving forward.for instance godswill akpabio stadium has been a very one of most productive stadia in the nation but am still surprising why such a stdium that eagle always walloped our opponent with a high margin of goals can be over look, judging by the performance so far before the stadium. If am not mistaking we have not lost upto two or three matches in that uyo stadium or too much draws, we always won our matches in akwaibom international stadium.dat stadium made our qualification to the world cup so easy because we did not draw any matches on verge of our qualification to the Russia 2018 world cup let alone to loose, we won all of our matches.nff, the earlier u relocate our venue of our super eagles matches to a good pitch the earlier the better even the players clamoured enough in expressing there love in playing football in a good pitch of uyo, akwaibom State.the issue is that anybody that has the opportunity to handle a very high ranking post in nff or ministry of sports will like to push super eagles home matches to his or her home state. Pinik force eagles to play in his State being Delta State, Sunday dare force the eagles to play for teslim balogun stadium. That is the isue. Pls let nff leave playing politics with eagle and other under age team matches and do the needful.uyo stadium is still one of the best stadia in the whole continent and even beyond.sacking rohr at the stage will be counter productive because even if the next coach fail within that short period of time he will still have a plenty of excuses to tender, he will say I didn’t have enough time to blend the team together and other stuff like that, whereas he accepted the job with full of elephant promise. Let leave rohr settle down and go ahead and plan the team for the fourth coming afcon. All this confusion will distract the team more and more.