Lucky Obukohwo Reporting
The President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Ibrahim Gusau, has scrapped salaries for all assistance coaches across all national teams, saying, henceforth, they will now receive an “invitational allowance”.
He said the reason for the scrapping is to ensure financial prudence.
“We want to reduce that problem so that at the end of the day, I know if the coaches’ salaries are N10m and I have N50m, I know I can pay them for five months, not paying people for doing nothing”, Gusau said.
Gusau added that due to the number of assistance coaches, most of them have less jobs to do, stressing that many were employed without active roles.
The NFF president said that the new approach is meant to ensure that coaches are compensated based on their active involvement, stating, “If we are supposed to pay you N1m, we will pay you N500,000.”
Gusau highlighted the issue of assistant coaches being appointed in large numbers, leading to many being idle during training sessions. He mentioned the specific case of the Eaglets having five assistant coaches, stating that such a number was unsustainable.
Furthermore, Gusau revealed a shift in the selection process for assistant coaches, indicating that head coaches of national teams would now have the privilege to choose their assistants.
He emphasized the accountability of head coaches in this decision, stating, “If they appoint you as head coach, you must be given the privilege to choose your assistants because I don’t want you to complain to me.”