Former NFF director: We don’t need Westerhof back

by Graeme Jackson

Sunday Apr 19, 2020. 16:00

Former Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) technical director Kashimawo Laloko says the idea of Clement Westerhof returning to the Super Eagles should be immediately rejected, and he has also criticised current manager Gernot Rohr.

Dutchman Westerhof, who was in charge of the Super Eagles from 1989 to 1994 and took the team to one AFCON title and qualification for the USA World Cup, has been touted as a possible replacement for current manager Gernot Rohr.

Westerhof, 79, would serve as a technical advisor for the NFF, with a younger coach in charge of the national team, according to a report from The Guardian.

The same article quotes Laloko, who insists that the Dutchman only succeeded because he had access to the former military Vice President, Augustus Aikhomu, and therefore huge amounts of funding were given the green light.

“As far as I am concerned, Westerhof is not a coach but an organiser. He was lucky that during his time as the coach of the Super Eagles he had direct contact with the late Aikhomu, and things worked out well for him. He cannot get same treatment now,” the former NFF director told The Guardian.

“These days, we don’t have people with the kind of interest in football shown by Aikhomu back then and that is the truth. Westerhof and his former assistant, Bonfere Jo, are birds of a feather and they are not good enough. Westerhof is even worse than Gernot Rohr.”

The incumbent Rohr is currently in negotiations over a new deal with the NFF, with one of the sticking points being the German’s alleged reluctance to blood locally-based players in the national team.

“The problem I have with Rohr is how many league matches does he watch that will make him to condemn them? During my days as the technical director of NFF, I insisted that the Eagles should be made up of 25 percent home-based players and the board agreed. And we had so many of them who later played for the country,” said Laloko.

“So, how can you now be telling me there are no good players in our league again? In the countries he has coached what did he win there? I do not know why people cannot do things the right way.

“We are not doing the right thing, that is just the truth. But we keep on messing up ourselves unnecessarily. Again, the fact that Westerhof succeeded as a coach doesn’t mean he is good.

“It is because he had people like the late Aikhomu, Amos Adamu, Bolaji Ojo-Oba who helped him out. Now, he cannot find such people again.”