BY JUDE OPARA, ABUJA

For the chief Coach of the National U-23 team, Samson Siasia, the mission to Senegal for the U-23 Africa Cup of Nations Championship is a task he will live to remember for a very long time.

CHAMPIONS… Victorious CAF U-23, AFCON Champions, Nigeria’s Dream Team celebrate after defeating Algeria in the final, Saturday night.

This is because the journey to Senegal was a little different from others in many ways. Apart from being a tournament on the calendar of CAF, where the winner will get a trophy, it also served as the qualifier for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Again, he must have some nostalgic feelings because after he was sacked by the NFF for failing to qualify for the 2012 African Cup of Nations, the victory in Senegal has surely vindicated him as one of the best coaches in the country today.

Four years ago, Nigeria did not only fail to win the trophy, which was won by Gabon but also failed to pick one of the Olympic soccer tickets for the London 2012 game. This apparently heightened the task of Siasia and his technical crew as they groomed the team for the Championship.

But the reason Siasia may remember this outing forever is the fact that it initially looked like a mission impossible going by the conditions he faced ahead of the competition.

The team were virtually left alone as the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development seemed to have engaged in the game of sitting back and watching who will first move to take care of the players and coaches.

We can recall severally when Siasia, who is well known for being outspoken, cried out following the inability of the boys to be paid their camp allowances. This, in fact, made some players who were not sure that anything good could come from the team to turn down invitation to join the fold.

Again, we can remember when the coach alerted the country that he did not have enough players in camp to perfect training schedule, a development that forced him to declare that nobody should hold him responsible if the country failed to qualify for the Rio 2016 Games.

But curiously, each time the coach cried out, instead of diligently looking into his complaints, the NFF would frown and shout him down. In fact before the team jetted out to Senegal, Siasia was slammed a fine of N500,000 for crying out over a backlog of unpaid wages and allowances to the team.

Interestingly, the situation did not abate even as the tournament progressed as we heard of a lot of ugly developments including threats by the players to boycott the final game against Algeria after many cries of abandonment by their sports authorities.

It was widely reported that before the players faced Senegal in the semi-final, Siasia had to personally give each of them $100 to encourage them to play.

Like how things are done in Nigeria, the normal fire brigade approach was used to ferry money to the team on the eve of the final game.

Siasia

However, it must be stated that due to the fact that they were not comfortable with Siasia, some people at the NFF were waiting to show him the exit door but as fate would have it, he against all odds achieved the unexpected by qualifying for the Olympics and winning the trophy.

Nevertheless, the NFF and Ministry of Youth and Sports Development should learn some lessons from the experiences of Siasia and Golden Eaglets coach, Emmanuel Amuneke.

It is safe to say that these two coaches had the worst of preparations for their respective international tournaments, yet against all odds, won their championships. Other teams that were somewhat pampered like the Super Eagles, were unable to achieve such laudable feats.

According to a former NFF official, “It will be wise for our sports authorities to drop the sentiments they often exhibit in favour of some people because they appear to be loyal and understanding while those perceived to be outspoken are left as orphans.

“Instead of always waiting for the failure of the ‘bad’ coaches as an excuse to sack them, the NFF should always endeavour to give all their teams the best support that will help them to excel. Today the bragging right the NFF enjoys comes from the very coaches, who were more or less left to their fate”, added the official, who craved anonymity.