THE reasons for Finidi George’s resignation as Super Eagles head coach have been revealed a day after he made the decision.
The former Super Eagles winger quit from the position yesterday, just around a month after he was made permanent head coach following a spell in a caretaker role.
After leading the team to two damaging results in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers earlier this month — a draw at home to South Africa and a defeat to Benin Republic in Abijdan — the Nigeria Football Federation took radical action that apparently irked Finidi.
The football body made a public statement on Thursday that they would be hiring a foreign ‘technical adviser’ who would supervise Finidi’s work, effectively taking the team away from the former Enyimba head coach.
It is believed that Finidi was particularly peeved that he was not informed about the NFF’s decision to effectively demote him even when he and the hierarchy of the body met with sports minister John Enoh on Thursday, the day after the federation had met and agreed to hire a foreign coach.
Also, after the meeting with the minister, nobody in the NFF informed Finidi about the decision and he only found out after the communique on the executive committee meeting was issued to the public.
The former Ajax and Real Betis star felt he was no longer wanted and decided to call it quits.
Finidi first took charge of the team on an interim basis in March following the resignation of his former boss Jose Peseiro, who had led the Super Eagles to a runners-up finish at the Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire a month earlier.
The 53-year-old won his first Super Eagles match in charge, a friendly against Ghana, but lost the other friendly to Mali.
He was then given the job full-time but the results got even worse, with a defeat to Benin Republic leaving the Super Eagles fifth in their World Cup qualifying group, from which only one team will earn a ticket.
