"Losing a game is not enough to sack Sunday Oliseh' - Sports Minister, Dalung

Nigeria's Youth and Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung has called Nigerians to support Sunday Oliseh in the trying times the coach is facing at the moment. He was quizzed by members of the House Committee on Sports during a budget defense on Tuesday and answered questions regarding the feud between the coach and the NFF.

“We must appreciate the way Nigerians behave and their sentiments to sports especially football. Nigerians do not accept anything short of victory. The performance of the team that led to whatever we are hearing, from my own analysis, was due to overconfidence.''
'' In terms of preparations and planning, you could access them based on their first outing. Of course, they had some welfare challenges which we inherited when we came on board. We took steps to secure approval for funds but the process of the release of funds could not beat the time of the outing. That also contributed to their early exit”

The Barrister also admitted he had spoken to Oliseh to hear his own side in the ongoing feud and also called the NFF president Amaju Pinnick to be sure he hadn't sacked the coach. Barrister Dalung said that after he met with the NFF President earlier in the day he called for peace and support for the coach.

“The idea of losing matches and sacking coaches is over. We cannot be winning matches all the time. We must build wider spaces in our minds for failure and success because that is the only way we can develop. The fact that he lost a game is not enough for us to begin to look at history. You don’t run a country like that! The man should be allowed and supported to come back and prepare the team for the qualifying matches ahead. If he had health challenges while working for us, we shouldn’t abandon him at this time”.Dalung said.