Joel Ajayi 

In consonance with its promise to the various Sports Federations, the National Sports Commission (NSC) will support the Nigeria Football Federation to succeed in the quest for World Cup qualification and beyond. NSC Chairman Mallam Shehu Dikko made this pledge during the ceremony unveiling new Super Eagles head coach Eric Sekou Chelle. 

His words, “If the NFF succeeds, we (NSC) succeed. If the NFF fails, we fail. So we will do all we can to support them to succeed. This is what I have been telling all the other Sports Federations and I am telling NFF the same thing now. Our destinies are sort of tied together.”

To this end, the idea of Presidential Support Group (PSG) was mooted to complement NFF and Nigeria’s quest to qualify for the World Cup. 

“The Presidential Support Group is not taking over the work of the NFF. NFF will do their work, PSG will only support the NFF to achieve the same goal and it is for this reason we are not calling it a task force but support group”, he added. 

He lent his voice to the process that produced Chelle as the 37th Super Eagles chief coach. 

“The process to select Eric was thorough. At the NSC we followed all the processes and all the details and we are happy with the process that produced Eric. I must congratulate Eric for being part of this great opportunity to be part of Nigeria’s journey in football”, he said.

In his opinion, Chelle’s selection should strengthen brotherly bonds across the West African subregion. 

“People are saying that this process negates the plans of the National Sports Commission to take our football from competition-driven to development-driven industry. It has not. It has actually advanced that course. People have forgotten that we are all in ECOWAS and ECOWAS is supposed to be one united family. And our dear President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the Chairman of ECOWAS. So to have a Franco-Malian here is another opportunity for bonding in ECOWAS and expanding our influence as leaders in the ECOWAS region and beyond”, he pointed out.

The NSC Chairman solicited support for the new national team helmsman. 

“All of us are committed to support the NFF to get us to the World Cup. We need to look at the records of Chelle in the Malian national team. Twenty-two games with Mali, 14 wins, 5 draws and only 3 losses. Over 40 goals scored and just 13 goal conceded. We are looking for someone to get us through this qualification process and we are going to play against African teams”, he added. 

Mallam Dikko shed more light on the rationale behind the choice of Chelle. 
“There is no time for any friendly match. We are going straight to the qualifiers to get the results. So we want someone who understands African football. He has coached Mali and even a top football club in Africa, so he understands the terrain and his record with Mali is impeccable. We could have brought the best coach in the world but before he settles down to understand the African environment, the World Cup qualifiers are over. 

“We are looking for someone to get down to work straight away and qualify us for the World Cup and Eric comes highly motivated, recommended and qualified. If he reenacts his winning ratio at Mali, I am sure we will qualify. Eric is quite motivated and determined to get this job done, reason he took a huge pay cut to be here with us.

This clearly shows the mindset and ambition of Eric which clearly aligns with our ambition for the Super Eagles.

“So I will enjoin all stakeholders to stop all these negativity and support Eric. We on our part will do all we can to get the desired results”, he concluded.

Earlier, NFF President Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau had pointed out that the choice of Chelle was geared towards having a smoother ride in the remaining World Cup qualifiers. On his part, Chelle promised to unleash the inherent attacking potentials of the Super Eagles.

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