NFF reduces technical crew of Super Eagles, Falcons, others to save cost 

By Wale Mustapha

Ibrahim Musa Gusau, President of Nigeria Football Federation has revealed that his leadership has embarked on pruning down numbers of technical and management staff of national teams to cut cost.

The nation’s football body have lamented the huge debt, following the backlog of unpaid allowances to various national teams, including Super Eagles and Super Falcons from various competitions in the last five years.

While the Super Eagles are still owed bonuses from Afcon 2019 in Egpyt, the Super Falcons are still waiting to be paid their bonuses from the Wafcon 2022 campaign seven months ago in Morocco.

In bid to manage resources, the new president insists his administration is taking measures to review the numbers of officials in each of the national teams to save cost and reduce redundancy.

“We started with Super Eagles by trimming the backroom staff to a manageable number from the over 20 attained in the past during their last friendly in Portugal,” Gusau told completesports.com.

“This I must confess saved us millions of Naira that should have gone into payment of flight tickets and accommodation, as well as daily allowances and expenditures.

“These measures will also affect the Super Falcons, Falconets, Flamingos and the Olympic Eagles and other age-grade national teams. Henceforth, only four coaches will be attached to each of the national teams, but perhaps, the Super Eagles and Super Falcons getting some preferential treatment as the occasion demands.

“The issue of coaches cut across all national teams including the Super Eagles. We cannot be managing 7-8 coaches in a team. That is an invitation for chaos and it’s money-consuming. To this end, we have told some of the coaches that their services are no longer required while some may be redeployed.”