NEW SUPER EAGLES COACH: Why ‘The Chosen One’ Amuneke lost out

Finidi George and not the popular Emmanuel Amuneke is today the new coach of the Super Eagles.

Both former internationals Class of ’94 were locked in a close fight for who will lead the Super Eagles after Jose Peseiro moved on after he guided the team to the final of the recent AFCON.

The NFF technical committee in its latest recommendations placed Finidi as the preferred choice for the top post so that he could continue where Peseiro had stopped having understudied him for over 20 months.

The committee only considered Amuneke an option to Finidi and that may even have been so on the prompting of Sports Minister John Enoh as it did not list the former Barcelona star in its original recommendations of three coaches.

Several top NFF officials were never comfortable working with Amuneke.

They recall a frosty working relationship particularly when he was in charge of the Golden Eaglets in 2015.

Amuneke, one of the officials told SCORENigeria, did not also endear himself to his immediate bosses when it was alleged he instigated a pay strike by the U20 national team, the Flying Eagles, which eventually cost them qualification to the 2017 U20 AFCON.

Two years ago, he was imposed on Augustine Eguavoen by then Sports Minister Sunday Dare and till this day many of the top officials blame him for the failure of the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

“There is still bad blood between Amuneke and many of these officials,” a source added.

Another official also accused Amuneke of unethical conduct as he was directly involved in the transfer of several of the Golden Eaglets players under him.

News of a court case that caused his Lagos house to be impounded certainly did not help his chances of becoming the next Super Eagles.

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