From ROMANUS UGWU, Abuja
Fresh facts have emerged on the real reason National Technical Director (NTD), Shaibu Amodu, rejected the offer to tinker the Super Eagles for the two-legged crucial Africa Nations Cup qualifier encounter against the Pharaohs of Egypt.
There has been debate over the reason the committee settled for Samson Siasia instead of Amodu, who incidentally disassociated himself from any Eagles match prosecuted under the immediate past chief coach, Sunday Oliseh.
However, a member of the Technical Sub-committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Garba Lawal, who made the disclosure, confirmed that Amodu was actually approached to take over the job but he declined on health reasons.
Lawal further revealed that the NTD made it clear to the committee that he lacks the energy to stand or sit on the technical bench to dish out intrustruction to the players, adding that he however accepted to supervise the consortium of coaches.
Asked why the choice of Siasia instead of Amodu, Lawal said: “We actually approached Amodu to take over the job of handling the team for the two-legged encounter against Egypt but he declined based on health ground.
“He specifically told the Technical Committee that he is not strong enough again to stand on the side-line and be dishing instructions to the players, preferring to participate on supervisory capacity to the consortium of coaches.
“With the decline of Amodu, the next person in seniority of the national team coaches is Siasia and that was why we settled for him. We also involved Amunike since he has no serious assignment before those games. So, we just followed the tradition of handling such situation,” he noted.