S P R T FIFA President, Infantino, rains encomiums on late Ismaila Mabo

By Albert Akota

President of world footballgoverning body, FIFA Mr. Gianni Infantino has described the former Super Falcons’ Head Coach, Ismaila Mabo who died recently as “one of the best coaches of his generation.”

In a letter of condolence that he personally signed and addressed to President of NFF, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa

Gusau on 20th March 2023, Infantino expressed, on behalf of the international football community, FIFA’s deepest sympathy to the NFF, family, friends and loved ones on the passing of the titan.

“I would like to express my sincerest and heartfelt condolences on the passing of the former women’s national team coach, Mabo Ismaila. Words seem inadequate to express the sadness we feel for this loss. Former international player with regular appearances in the senior national team, he notably defended the colours of Mighty Jets FC in the late 1960s and 1970s.

“As a coach, Mabo Ismaila led the senior women national team, the Super Falcons, to the quarter finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1999, to two Olympic Football Tournaments in 2000 and 2004, as well as to the 1998 and

2000 women’s Africa Cup of Nations titles.

“Considered as one of the best coaches of his generation, inspiration to younger generations of coaches, having contributed to the growth of women’s football in the country and around the world, his legacy and achievements, and in particular his personality, his loyalty and his human qualities will not be forgotten and he will be truly missed.”

NFF explains situation in Super Eagles’ technical crew, says nobody was sacked

The Nigeria Football Federation has issued a statement decrying media reports that it sacked two members of the Super Eagles’ technical crew, Messrs Finidi George and Ike Shorounmu from the team.

The statement read: As part of cost-cutting measures instituted at the beginning of the new administration, we established a rotation policy among the assistant coaches, based on the high number, which was agreed with all of them. The last time that the team had a programme, Mr. Finidi George was the person who travelled for the friendly match in Portugal. This rotation policy is only for matches. When there is a tournament, all of them will be with the team.

He knew at that time that the next trip would be that of Mr. Usman Abdallah. Abdallah is simply taking his turn to be in the camp for the program of Super Eagles Vs Djurtus of Guinea Bissau, and Mr. George will be around for the next program.

The other person who could have been contending, Mr. Salisu Yusuf, has been sent to the U23 team. There was no victimization, sleight of hand or any disrespect meant to our illustrious exinternational players.

The case of goalkeepers’ trainer, Ike Shorounmu is somewhat peculiar, as the former Nigeria goalkeeper showed a clear lack of desire to be in camp for the matches against Guinea Bissau.

We do not want to go into any details because we have the utmost respect for all our ex-internationals, including Mr.

Shorounmu. It was only when we got the clear signal that he was unwilling to come, and the Head Coach was in a quandary, that he (Coach Peseiro) requested for the services of Olatunji Baruwa, who he had seen at work during the U20 AFCON in Egypt, to help do the work of training the goalkeepers.

We agree there are a number of challenges concerning contracts of coaches of National Teams that we need to speedily resolve. The NFF is working on these and the issues will soon be in the past.