Enyimba: Finidi George Spills The Beans

By Daily Sports Nigeria on October 31, 2023

Nigerian league winning coach Finidi George is furious after the club's attempt to pour their behind-the-scene failings on his head.

Enyimba head coach Finidi George has finally lifted the lid on issues surrounding the club’s 4-0 aggregate loss to Wydad AC in the African Football League (AFL).

In an exclusive interview with selected journalists, the former Super Eagles winger opened up on some of the internal issues that left the team with no chance against the continent’s biggest clubs in the AFL.

Here are some of the excerpts from the Nigerian football legend.

 

On Player recruitment and squad quality

“At the level of the AFL, you must have a strong squad to stand any chance. We lost our top scorer (Emeka Obioma) and our highest assist provider (Sadiq Abubakar). We also lost so many other top players whose experience would have been needed in the AFL. But nothing was done to replace them right.

“We didn’t have any business losing many of those players, maybe apart from Emeka Obioma who had some big opportunities abroad.

“Sadiq (Abubakar) and Fatai (Abdullahi) were willing to stay, but the club did not show seriousness in keeping them. You don’t lose such players when you are preparing for a competition as big as the AFL.

“The current Enyimba team for the season can only compete in the NPFL and not on the continent. We are not at the level of Wydad. We have to focus on the league. We didn’t replace the players who left adequately.

“Out of 19 new players that were brought in, I had knowledge of only 4 of them. When I saw the quality of the players that were brought, I called Ekwueme the Sporting Director and asked what the target for the season is, he said it is just to stabilize in the league as the focus is to settle down first.

“When you bring in players that have no history in the league and did not even perform well in their previous clubs or anywhere to a top club like Enyimba, how do you compete with a club like Wydad which has national team players and a lot of players that have played in Europe and competed at highest level? We don’t have the squad to compete at such level.”

Issues around player registration

“Ideally, before registering players for any competition, the coaches must be consulted to submit the list. But that wasn’t the case here. For whatever flimsy reason, we were not consulted and they did the registration themselves. As a result, some of the players we would have needed were not registered. It was much later that the sporting director just sent us the list of players that they had already registered.

“After the first leg, they dropped some players from travelling for the second leg in Casablanca, claiming that they couldn’t get them visas. We had to protest it strongly before it was rectified. We later found out that there was more to it.

“Can you imagine that we went for such a game without the goalkeeping and fitness coaches? Myself and Yema were the only coaches that travelled for that game. That is very strange to me.

“Everyone has to put the interest of the club first because until this is done, we would only be joking.”

 

 

Source Opera News

Posted October 31, 2023


 

You may also like...
Ronaldo Soars More Than 2.5 Metres To Score...

Mike Tyson Reveals He Smokes $40k Cannabis Monthly...

Super Eagles Call-Up Delights Mathew Yakubu

Ifeanyiuba team to watch this season, Okagbue declares...

Pellegrini Sacked As West Ham Coach

Nigeria to pay World Cup bonuses before DRC...

 

Latest News Nigeria beat Cameroon to reach IHF final 27 schools for Doregos Basketball Championship Super Falcons to play France’s Les Bleues in friendly SWAN suspends ban on coverage of Anambra FA activities Joshua among boxing’s top three earners in 2024 Oshoala makes history with Bay FC Nnamani hails team over IHF bright start Flamingos lift U-17 W’Cup Fair Play Trophy Rangers Intl, SWAN partner on sports collaboration in SE LAGOS SWAN CELEBRATES AIG ZONE 2 ON HIS BIRTHDAY AND 30 DAYS IN OFFICE Traders Cup: Upholstery Soccer Team Secured 2nd Win To Advance To Round Two Lagos SWAN Celebrates Oba Akiolu, Iyaloja General, AIG Fayoade

 

Most Read Rangers International going, going . . . (55,142 views) Amaju Pinnick: A cat with nine lives (46,269 views) Second Term: Amaju Pinnick, Other NFF Heavyweights Home to Roost •How Pinnick Broke the Jinx (44,350 views) Missing $150,000 IAAF Grant: Solomon Dalung’s Hide and Seek game (43,992 views) Sports Development: Zenith Bank on the zenith (43,932 views) Current issues in Nigerian sports: Matters arising (43,879 views) Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje’s solid footprints, commitment to sports development in Kano State (43,718 views) NFF Presidency: Pinnick, Maigari, Ogunjobi, Okoye in Battle for Supremacy (43,289 views) Olopade, BET9A wave of revolution in NNL (42,333 views) Commonwealth Games 2018: Shame of Muhammadu Buhari, Solomon Dalung (41,036 views) Ibrahimovic’s Man U exit: Whose decision is it? And in whose interest? (39,489 views) John Mikel Obi: Segun Odegbami’s Outrageous Call! (38,916 views)

 

Phone numbers

Tel: +234(0)8066020976
+234(0)8055068145
+234(0)7013416146
+234(0)8094272884

Email addresses

info@dailysportsng.com
support@dailysportsng.com
publisher@dailysportsng.com

Office address

No 3, Adetoun Close, Off College Road, Ogba, Ikeja Lagos.
Website: www.dailysportsng.com

Social Media