Finidi George
Former Nigeria coach, Finidi George, who resigned from the Super Eagles job over the weekend, told ESPN he heard about the Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) decision to hire a foreign technical advisor after they had had a three-hour meeting with him and failing to mention it.
The 53-year-old was officially confirmed as permanent coach and unveiled on May 13, after holding the job in an interim capacity for two games in March following the departure of former coach Jose Peseiro.
But two poor results in World Cup qualifiers, a 1-1 home draw against South Africa and a shock 1-2 reverse at Benin Republic, led to calls for his dismissal. Last week, the NFF board announced following a meeting, that they would appoint an expatriate Technical Adviser for the team.
Although there was no word about Finidi in the NFF statement on Wednesday, an official told ESPN at the time that the former international would remain on the technical staff and see out his one-year contract.
However, George confirmed to ESPN on Saturday that he handed in his resignation, explaining he did so as a matter of principle.
He said NFF did not have the courtesy of giving him a heads up about the decision, despite having made it a day before holding a three-hour meeting with him.
“They met on Wednesday and took a decision to hire a technical advisor,” he told ESPN. “I have no problems with that.
“But we had a three-hour meeting on Thursday, looking back at what happened and talking about the way forward. At no point did anybody mention that they are getting a technical advisor.”