Win or lose, Peseiro’s contract won’t be renewed after AFCON

The contract of Head Coach of the Super Eagles, Jose Peseiro, will not be renewed irrespective of whether he wins the 34th Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire or not.

President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau, gave this hint yesterday at an interactive session in Lagos.

The Portuguese gaffer whose initial contract with NFF expired on July 31, was handed a fresh contract to lead the Super Eagles to the 2023 AFCON initially scheduled to hold last summer. Non completion of the facilities to host the tournament forced the postponement till January 13.

Peseiro has come under fire from the local sporting media due to Eagles uninspiring play under his watch.

“The contract of our head coach is expiring at the end of the tournament. We will then open discussion with whoever will take over from Peseiro. One thing is certain, he’s not coming back,” he noted.

Gusau insisted that the terms of the contract entered with the Portuguese made it Impossible to dispense with his service when Nigerians called for his sack.

Interestingly, while Peseiro’s time with Nigeria is up, the contract of Super Falcons American Coach, Randy Waldrum, is to be renewed for him to continue to lead the nine-time African champions to greater heights.

Waldrum and the NFF have been playing hide and seek over a new contract for the gaffer. He led Falcons to the Round of 16 at the last FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand before crashing out to Britain’s Lionesses in a nail-biting penalty shootouts. 

The Nigerian ladies were unbeaten in regulation time in any of their four matches, before that penalty defeat.

Gusau admitted that Waldrum was on his way back to the team.

“The Super Falcons Coach Randy Waldrum is not going anywhere. He’s coming back to the team to build on the great run of the team at the last Women’s World Cup in Australia. We want him to lead Falcons to the Olympic Games football tournament in Paris next summer,” observed Gusau. 

He stressed that with the feat performed by Falcons in Australia,”battling  Olympic champions Canada to a scoreless draw in Melbourne, defeating co-hosts Australia 3-2 in Brisbane and also playing  scoreless draw with Republic of Ireland before that painful penalty defeat by Britain, it was proper and fit that we renew Waldrum’s contract.”

Against expectations of ball fans worldwide, Falcons had the better of the clash with England, leading to a scoreless result in regulation and extra time, forcing the encounter into a penalty shootout.

“I am looking forward to a clash  between Super Falcons and the Lionesses of England again. I will prefer that we even play the match before their home fans,” enthused Gusau who believes that Falcons ought not to have lost that Round of 16 match.

Waldrum signed a two-year contract with Nigeria in 2021, during which he led Falcons to qualify for the 2022 Women Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco and the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Meanwhile, the NFF Chief has also hinted that all assistant coaches with the national teams will henceforth no longer be on salaries with the federation.

“All assistant coaches will now earn allowances based on their outings with the national teams. We will only pay the head coaches while the assistants will only be called when needed. It is one of the measures that we have taken  to relax the wage burden we are bearing.”