SUPER EAGLES COACH FIRED

Berti Vogts

Nigeria ’s Football Association (NFA) Coach Berti Vogts has been dismissed following what was described as a woeful outing by the Super Eagles national team in the recently concluded CAF African Cup of Nations competition in Accra, the Ghanaian capital.

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, the Federation's Web site said.

There are however conflicting reports to the story as a German federation website (Deutscher Fussball-Bund ) stated that the former German coach Vogts “has quit the Nigeria’s national team with immediate effect,” while the Nigeria’s football body NFA insists that he was sacked.

According to the NFA, Vogts was served a letter of dismissal and has confirmed receipt of the 30-day notice, stating that will not be contesting the decision.

Nigeria crashed out of the competition at the quarterfinal stage after a 2-1 defeat to host country Ghana.

"They sent him a letter of termination and all he did was to acknowledge it," Vogts Technical Assistant Emeka Ezeala was reported to have said.

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The NFA is liable to pay Vogts over USD1-million in the event of the termination of the contract, and sports analysts believe the German-born Coach would demand compensation for the abrupt termination of contract.

“They (NFA) know the implications of what they have done by writing him that letter as per the terms of the contract and they will have to figure that one out.”Ezeala said.

The Super Eagles’ outing at the last Cup of Nations competition is said to be the worst in over 20 years.

Many had expected the football to take action on his dismissal immediately after the defeat to Ghana and were surprised when nothing was being said about until now.

Nigeria’s former national team captain Stephen Keshi, currently the Togolese Coach is said to be up for the vacant position along with “Olympic dream team” Coach Samson Siasia, who fans have tipped for the position.