NIGERIA Football Federation (NFF) will need over N120 million (N120,804,000) to terminate the contract of the Super Eagles coach Jose Paseiro before its expiration in February 2024.
The ICIR got this sum after calculating Paseiro’s monthly salary at $50,000, equivalent to N40,268,000 million naira, using the current exchange rate at N805 multiplied by the three months (December, January, and February) left before his contract expires.
The ICIR reported that the Portuguese agreed to a 25 per cent pay cut of his initial $70,000 to continue as the gaffer of the country’s senior men’s football team in September 2023.
In his agreement to continue his job, he agreed to lead the Super Eagles to, at the minimum, the semi-finals of the 34th Africa Cup of Nations finals in Ivory Coast, billed to hold next year.
“As stipulated in the original contract, drawn in May 2022, the Portuguese has been handed the mandate to lead the Super Eagles to, at the minimum, the semi-finals of the 34th Africa Cup of Nations finals in Ivory Coast in a few months.
“He has now agreed to continue in the role after accepting a pay cut on his earlier terms, with the new agreement also putting him in charge of the Super Eagles B – the home-based professionals who contest the biennial African Nations Championship,” the NFF stated in the statement.
Peseiro’s contract hoodwinks NFF despite poor performances
Following the recent Super Eagles poor performances, Nigerian football enthusiasts have called for the replacement of the 63-year-old coach, worrying over his technical ability to qualify the team for the 2026 World Cup.
Although, since his contract renewal in September, the Super Eagles have won two matches and drawn three.
Fan’s outbursts have been fueled by the coach’s inability to maximise his star-studded team to defeat low-ranked countries like Lesotho and Zimbabwe.
Amidst fans’ disappointments has been the coach’s insistence on featuring Francis Uzoho despite his fumbling goalkeeping errors.
But the echoes of Peseiro’s sack were lowered in a post-match interview after the match against Zimbabwe when NFF’s board member Nse Essien revealed the federation could not pay the coach’s compensatory fees if he were to be relieved of his job.
In a chat with The ICIR, a sports journalist based in Jos, Peter Eben advised that the Super Eagles coach should be allowed to continue his job until the expiration of his contract in February.
“Let’s allow the coach to continue his job,” he said.
Contrary to Eben, a veteran sports journalist based in Lagos state, Maxwell Kumoye argued that the Super Eagles deserved a better coach, calling for the termination of Peseiro.
“No contract cannot be terminated. It is an agreement between two parties, and if one party feels this cannot go on, it will intimate the other party that this can not continue,” he said.
When reminded of NFF’s claim of lack of money to pay off Peseiro’s contract, Kumoye said the NFF got grants from the world football governing body, FIFA, which could be used to cater to its need.
“It is the stupidity of the highest order. How much will it cost to pay him off? They have properties they can use to collect loans in the bank, and after all, they get grants from FIFA,” he stressed.