President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has insisted he does not have any regrets calling Sunday Oliseh Africa’s Pep Guardiola.
Oliseh has been blamed in some quarters, for the Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon.
The former national team captain was contracted last July, but decided to quit after a series of indifferent results, including a draw away to Tanzania in the AFCON qualifying series.
“I have no regret calling Oliseh the Pep Guardiola of Africa, it was just to give him a psychological edge,” Pinnick said in Abuja on Wednesday.
“We wanted to boost his morale to do the job. It was just a way of encouraging him to get what we wanted him to achieve.
“When we employed him, we gave him a four-year plan to turn around our football and during the turbulent period Oliseh resigned and we had to move swiftly to appoint Siasia to lead the team. I must say Siasia and Co did very well but it was just not our destiny to qualify.
“We had good intentions but unfortunately it did not work.”
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