Tunde Disu, veteran Nigerian coach of the famed Daman Miracle Flying Eagles, has exonerated the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) from the humiliating ouster of the Super Eagles Team B at the ongoing African Nations Championship (CHAN) being hosted by the trio of Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya.
Nigeria crashed out of the 8th African Nations Championship on Tuesday after losing 4-0 to Sudan in Zanzibar. The defeat on the Indian Ocean Island, following the one-goal defeat by cup-holders, Senegal, a week earlier, meant the Super Eagles Team B have already exited the competition, no matter the result of their final Group D encounter against Congo in Dar es Salaam next Tuesday.
The humiliation was a joint-record defeat for Nigeria in the 26-year-old competition, with a similar scoreline recorded in their defeat by hosts Morocco in the final of the 2018 edition.
While Nigerians have come down hard on the domestic league as not being good enough to produce potential CHAN winners, Disu, in a chat with our correspondent on the result which put paid to Nigeria’s campaign, said the country’s topflight remained one of the best and toughest in Africa, noting that blame should not be heaped on the league, rather the selection of players, the preparations and other hidden factors that could have militated against them.
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“I don’t think the league is to blame for that result,”
“When I heard about the result, I was upset because it shouldn’t be so.
“However, our league is one of the best and toughest in Africa, so it is not about it,” he said.
“I don’t know how they prepared but I think it has a lot to do with their preparations; how many months were they in camp together since it is a championship of home players and they are all playing at home? This is very important.
“Also, in a competition like this, the task should have been given to a coach whose team is top in the league and who understands the players. I am talking about team selection here. It is not something that should be handed to a coach strange to the league.
“No matter how bad the league is, we can still have good players but the question is, how were they selected? These are very important.
“I don’t want to blame anyone but the whole process should be looked into; their preparations, their selections, approach and motivation, then the technical inputs in the team.
“To me, there is a fundamental problem beyond the league itself in that team and subsequently, they should thoroughly examine this,” the veteran coach said.
(Editor: Paul Akhagbemhe)
