Nigeria’s coach Sunday Oliseh has confirmed that he has apologised to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) after his recent attacks on the federation as well as his critics.
The NFF president Amaju Pinnick was the first to confirm to The PUNCH that Oliseh sent in the apology on Monday.
“Yes, he did,” Pinnick responded to a text message sent to him by our correspondent.
The Super Eagles coach was later on the telephone from his home in Belgium to The PUNCH to confirm the earlier statements of Pinnick and another official of the NFF to the fact that he had apologised.
“Yes, it’s true that I apologised today (Monday) to the NFF,” Oliseh said.
“We’ve talked and I believe it is time to move forward positively. The point has been made and we have all taken things maturely. It was just important to sincerely put the records straight.”
The Eagles coach has received a lot of criticism since Nigeria crashed out at the knockout stage of the 2016 African Nations Championship.
Oliseh in turn fired back, saying his team were not well motivated while the competition lasted in Rwanda. On Sunday he lashed out at his critics calling them “insane”. He particularly lashed out at some of his former national teammates, who he claimed have used various media platforms to attack him unprofessionally.
Nigeria failed to qualify from the group stages of the 2016 CHAN. The Eagles placed third in Group C with four points behind Guinea and Tunisia after a brilliant start against Niger Republic. The change of fortune left many football fans disappointed with some calling for his dismissal. Oliseh’s failure to return with the team back to Abuja fuelled speculations that he was quitting the job he started seven months ago.
But in an interview with The PUNCH last week the former Eagles captain said he was not going to resign. The loss against Guinea in Rwanda marked Oliseh’s first loss in a competitive game as Eagles manager. His only loss earlier was in an international friendly against DR Congo played in Belgium. His next major test will be the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Egypt billed for March 23 in Kaduna and its return leg in Cairo five days later. (Punch)
