NIGERIA Football Federation President Amaju Pinnick has given reasons for the sacking of Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr.
The German’s sacking was announced on Sunday night, a month after his last match in charge, a 1-1 draw with Cape Verde in Lagos.
Former Super Eagles captain and head coach Austin Eguavoen was named as Rohr’s replacement on an interim basis.
Pinnick explained that although the Super Eagles advanced to the African playoffs for the Qatar 2022 World Cup under Rohr, the coach still had to be fired because of other considerations.
“It wasn’t an individual decision, it was a collective decision by the entire football committee,” Pinnick said said on ChannelsTelevision breakfast show ‘Sunrise Daily’ on Monday.
“We were winning our games but there were a lot of things we considered. When you look at it, you don’t want to blame but let it go and move on to a new hope and new zeal.
“We did everything for one major factor — the discipline in the team had practically been lost in the dressing room. Discipline in the team was at its lowest and once you remove discipline, that foundation on the team will be lost.
“Players will now turn back on you. Players will believe they are indispensable. These are factors that will now work against the team.
“So, we needed to change things because leadership is all about protecting whoever is working with you. We don’t want to go through all that, we had to take the bull by the horns before disaster starts happening. It was about to happen.”
Pinnick admitted that the NFF is yet to pay the players and Rohr their full entitlements, while the sacked coach’s payoff is still shrouded in secrecy.
He added: “We are only owing the players about two matches of all the matches they played in both AFCON qualifiers and World Cup qualifiers. For Gernot Rohr, I know we paid him for about five months. We were owing him for a couple of months, then we cleared about five months.”
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