Thursday, February 21, 2008

Nigeria:Berti Vogts Bow Out As Eagles Coach

Berti Vogts says he quit his job as Nigeria national team coach due to the frosty relationship between him and the NFA leadership.

The 61-year-old, who guided Germany to victory in the 1996 European Championship, had been heavily criticised in Nigeria following their African Nations Cup quarter-final defeat to hosts Ghana.In a statement reported by German sports news agency SID, Vogts criticised the Nigerian Football Association for their lack of support for his training team in the face of heavy attacks in the Nigerian media.

"The actions and behaviour of the Nigerian Football Associa-tion during and after the African Nations Cup have destroyed all trust between the two parties and further cooperation is impos-sible," Vogts' lawyer Stefan von Moers said.

Many expected the NFA to fire Vogts after the team's uncon-vincing performance in the tournament.

Nigerian media - and Nigeria midfielder Sunday Oliseh - criticised Vogts for putting together an all-German training team, including former Germany players Steffen Freund and Uli Stein.

"If white journalists behaved this way towards a black trainer, I think people would call it racism," SID reported Vogts as saying after their 2-0 win over Benin on Jan 29.

Vogts, who took over the job last March, emphasised that "working with the team and players was a great pleasure" and said he particularly regrets he "cannot continue this coopera-tion and the building of a new powerful Nigerian national team."

Similarly, Vogts' technical assistant, Emeka Ezeala confir-med the development yester-day in a chat with brilafm.net, during which he declared that he got the news direct from the German coach, who has taken it in his stride.

"I just called him and he confirmed that he had received a letter terminating his contract. There's nothing he can do but accept what the NFA wants.

"It's just like what happens to a journalist who is told to go by his office. He has to abide with what the boss wants, once his contract is terminated," he explained.

"Of course, the coach has to take the rap for the team's poor performance. However, he picked the best team for Nigeria, and the NFA gave their okay for his squad."It's sad, but the players did not give their best. It's really the players who disappointed the nation, but it's the coach who eventually takes the blame," Ezeala lamented.

The Germany-based football agent concluded with a revelation that Vogts still feels disappointed that he could not sit down and reach an agreement with the NFA, after the Ghana 2008 foibles, but would rather not speak further about the coach's contract.

Vogts' contract with Nigeria was due to run until the end of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

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