EXCLUSIVE: Ex-NFF Technical Director, Bewarang, backs indigenous coach for vacant Eagles job

***Canvasses long-term contract too

By Harry Awurumibe,  Editor-in-Chief, Abuja

As Nigerians await the appointment of the substantive head coach of Super Eagles, the immediate past Technical Director (TD) of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Coach Bitrus Bewarang has thrown his full weight behind the call for the vacant position to be given to the most qualifed Nigerian coach this time around.

The former Super Eagles coach who was one of the two Assistant Coaches to former Technical Adviser/Head Coach, Clemens Westerhof when  Nigeria qualified for her first FIFA World Cup in United States of America (USA) in 1994, said he is in full support of the clamour by many Nigerians for the NFF to hand the Suoer Eagles coaching job to an indigenous gaffer.

Speaking exclusively to Prompt News from his Jos base, Bewarang, former General Manager of Plateau United FC revealed that before his tour of duty ended in October 2020, he had recommended to the federation that henceforth indigenous coaches should be considered over the expatriate managers to handle the country’s national teams.

According to him there are many qualified Nigerian coaches both in the country and diaspora good enough to handle the Super Eagles hence the need for NFF to save the scarce foreign exchange by looking inwards to pick one of the  indigenous coaches who applied for the vacant post of head coach of Super Eagles than hiring another foreign coach who may not be better than theri Nigerian counterparts.

Said he: “Before I stepped aside, my little contribution as the immediate past National Technical Director of the NFF was that indigenous coaches should be given priority to handle our national teams.

I want to observe that,we have very good indigenous coaches based in Nigeria and abroad”.

The former Nigeria’s U-23 and Flying Eagles head coach insists that some indigenous coaches are far better than some expatriate managers if they are given the same level playing field as the foreign coaches, arguing that the expatriate coaches are given longer time on the job and free hand to work than the few indigenous managers who have been opportuned to lead the Super Eagles or other national teams.

The ex-international however doubts if indeed the NFF will treat the indigenous coaches the way they do to the expatriates who he said get everything they required including humongous salaries to do the work.

“I am an apostle of giving the job to an indigenous coach but will NFF honestly treat them (indigenous coaches) as they treat the expatriate coaches? They earn bigger salaries, given accomodations in “grade A” areas, attached chaffeur-driven vehicles and given backup coaching staff, brought by them and give them “free hand” to operate,etc,etc?

“They are allowed to fumble and wobble, without being sacked. But  get an indigenous coach, give him one or two matches and he looses. The next thing is the cry of “sack him, sack him”, even if he has not done 1/4 of his contract”.

Bewarang who got his professional coaching licence in Germany also argued that Nigerian coaches do not succeed on the job most of the time because of the shortness of time given to them to perform, saying that indigenous coaches should be given long-term contracts.

“In fact, our football authorities and Nigerian football followers are not always patient to give our Nigerian coaches time to go through their contract duration as is the case with our expatriate colleagues who normally stay longer on the job. We can’t succeed with our Nigerian coaches that way”.

My sincere advice is that let us learn to give Nigerian coaches a long contract duration too. We have all seen that expatriate managers who have managed our national teams both in the past and present are given time to make mistakes and continue to make amends on the job but if it were our indigenous coaches the authorities and Nigerians will call for their sack. Let us be patient with whosoever the NFF appoints especially if he is an indigenous coach”, Bewarang admonished.