By KATE Obodo

Former Golden Eaglets coach Godwin Izilien has disagreed with the Senate Committee on Sports which blamed coaches and footballers for the recent free fall of the country’s football as he attributed it instead to poor administration.

Izilien, also a former Super Falcons coach, told Sunday Vanguard Sports that the poor results were as a result of lack of proper organisation by the Nigeria Football Federation especially in monitoring the activities of coaches in major events.

According to him. “2011 has been a frustrating year for Nigerian football, we cannot say we failed technically. I believe we failed in terms of poor organization and that affected us technically. First, the NFF should be able to have a viable technical department that will help to monitor the activities of coaches and perhaps back them up with an enlightened programme that will help them boost their technical ability. He continued, “I will also say that the NFF fumbled by not taking a firm decision on the team but instead allowed Austin Eguavoen to focus more on foreign-based players. If a coach is going for a national assignment, he should not be left alone, he should be monitored jealously, in terms of the quality of players invited and those players that are in the camp and also the period in which they are going to stay in camp.

“Since they (NFF) knew that the competition was not on FIFA’s calender, why didn’t they tell Eguavoen to concentrate totally on the local players. Even if they told him and he objected, they(NFF) would have stood firm on their decision to have him focus on the local players instead of keeping quiet to the detriment of the country.

They should have also insisted and have an alternate team in case things turn the other way. Why should they (NFF) say he refused when they are in charge? You can see that the NFF are not organised,” he concluded.