AFCON
Four points of interests in the sacking of Gernot Rohr
BY KUNLE SOLAJA
Franco-German coach, Gernot Rohr was on Sunday night relieved of his duty as Super Eagles’ manager. It came after weeks of waiting as most Nigerians believed that the sack was just an incident waiting to happen.
Sports Village Square highlights the take-aways of the 12-12 (12 December) event.
- Third foreign coach sacked by Nigeria in 24 years
The sacking of Gernot Rohr marks the third time a foreign coach was sacked by Nigeria since the dismissal of Frenchman, Phillippe Trousier in 1997 after qualifying the Super Eagles for France ’98. The next foreign coach to be fired was Bonfrere Johannes who was dismissed as the Super Eagles lost 0-1 to Sierra Leone on the road to World Cup 2002. The other foreign coaches simply walked out of their duty posts. Among these were Lars Lagerback (Sweden), Berti Vogts (Germany), Thijs Libgrets (Netherlands), Bora Milutinovic (Serbia), Carlos Alberto Torres (Brazil), Clemens Westerhof (Netherlands) and Manfred Hoener (Germany.
- Coach with longest Tenure
No coach had stayed on the saddle for a long time as did the soft speaking and soft acting Gernot Rohr whose single tenure goes down as the longest by any manager of the Nigerian team in 72 years. Employed on 5 August 2016, he spent an unbroken 1,955 days on the job.
This is five years, four months and seven days or 64 months and seven days. The closest to that was Clemens Westerhof who had 1,787 days – four years, 10 months and 22 days.
In terms of number of matches, Rohr had 54. The closest to that was by the late Amodu Shaibu whose four spells of 1994-97; 1999; 2001/02 and 2008-2010 as Super Eagles’ manager cumulatively had 53 matches.
- No back-to-back coach to Afcon in 21 years
The sacking of Rohr means his Africa Cup of Nations’ dreams have been terminated. Only three coaches have back-to-back taken the Nigerian team to the continental premier football competition.
They are Jelisvicic Tihomeir-Tiko (1976 and 1978), Otto Gloria (1980 and 1982) and Clemens Westerhof (1990, 1992 and 1994).
In essence, in 21 years, no coach will take Nigeria to the Africa Cup of Nations consecutively.
- Eguavoen to have shortest preparation to Afcon
With 27 days to the kick-off of the delayed 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, Eguavoen who succeeds Rohr will have the shortest period preparing a Nigerian team to the continental football fiesta.
He is however not a stranger to the competition having featured in the 1988, 1992 and the on-field captain in 1994. He was the coach to the 2006 edition in Egypt.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
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