Former Super Eagles handler, Gernot Rohr, has described comments made by the president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, that he lost the dressing room while in charge as “ridiculous’.
Rohr was sacked after five years in charge of the three-time African champions.
Augustine Eguavoen has been drafted in as an interim replacement.
Defending the reason why Rohr was shown the way out, the president of the Nigeria Football Federation stated Rohr lost control of his team’s discipline – thus, he had to be fired.
Pinnick told Channels TV: “He [Rohr] happens to be the longest-serving manager of the Super Eagles.
“We gave him all the support but we didn’t want to wait for a disaster to happen before parting ways. The last two games were very tough games for us.
“We did everything that we could, but one major factor was that discipline in the team is lost practically. In the dressing room, discipline in the team was at its lowest edge and once you remove discipline, that foundation in the team has cracked.
“Players now talk back at you, players believe that they are indispensable. A lot of factors that will now militate against the team.”
This statement by the former Caf vice president did not go down well with Rohr, stating that the NFF had mapped out a plan to send him packing.
“This is ridiculous. Everybody knows it. The dressing room was always with me,” the German told ESPN.
“All the players are writing to me and thanking me for my professionalism, for my independent work, for my presence.
“The dressing room was 100% behind me. And I hope it will also be 100% behind the new coach.
“I think they already had this prepared. They brought the new coach [Eguavoen] one year ago, so he could have a look.
“He would ask for the technical reports because he was technical director and Paul [Aigbogun], his assistant, was doing for me the work of scouting the opponents.
“But I wish them all the best because I want my players to succeed, to win the Afcon. I want Nigeria to go to the World Cup, and I’m sure that they will.”
