Coach Obire Identifies Why Super Eagles Missed Qatar 2022

By Ambrose Ologide 

A former coach of the defunct NNPC Football Club, Paul Obire, has advanced reasons why the Supper Eagles of Nigeria were ousted by the Black Stars of Ghana in the Qarta World Cup qualifies. 

Obire, who is a Senior Special Assistant ( SSA) to Governor Okowa, in an interaction with newsmen at his Warri residence reasoned that the Supper Eagles lacked  character in the second leg of the encounter in Abuja.

Obire, who coached the Supper Eagles present handler, Austin Eguavon in the defunct NNPC Football Club in the 1980s, noted also that the Nigerian players did not possess the essential 6Cs in the ill fated match. 

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The 6Cs, according him, were courage, confidence, concentration, competitiveness, composure and consistency.

“Having the 6 Cs would have made our players Supper Eagles and not Supper Chickens on the field of play.

“The Supper Eagles would have carried the game to the Black Stars and unsettled them in the process.

“Our boys played as if nothing was at stake and they allowed the Black Stars to play their game, ” he lamented.

Stressing on the issue of lack of concentration, Coach Obire noted that the odds would have favoured the Supper Eagles, had it been the last leg of the encounter was played in Ghana, saying that the Supper Eagles had often lost concentration and being distracted  anytime they played at home.

Obire added that “a mere gathering of foreign based players will not help matters.

“If it were to be the home based players, you would have seen the burning desire to play in them. 

“One of the reason we lost that match was because the Supper Eagles lacked character; the burning desire to play was not there. There was a lot of distractions,” he said.

When asked to make a choice between a local and foreign coach for the Supper Eagles, Coach Obire responded that it would be difficult for Nigerians to repose confidence on local coaches owing to the poor results they had recorded so far .

Coach Paul Obire however argued that local coaches were better in terms of qualifications, as he noted that most foreign coaches had no coaching licences.

“Former Supper Eagles Coach, Berti Vogt and I were course mates in Germany and I was the overall best student in the class.

“When he saw me with Pinick Amaju ( NFF President ), he asked Amaju why they sent for him ( Berti Vogt) when they ( NFF ) have me in Nigeria,” Coach Obire added.

He insisted that some local coaches were better than foreign ones.