NFF board passes vote of confidence in Jose Peseiro despite humiliating loss to Portugal

NIGERIAN Football Federation (NFF) officials have passed a vote of confidence in Super Eagles head coach Jose Peseiro despite him leading the team to its most humiliating defeat in 28 years following last week's 0-4 loss to Portugal.

Last Thursday, World Cup-bound Portugal thrashed Nigeria 4-0 in a pre-tournament friendly, humiliating the Super Eagles before a global audience. This was Nigeria's worst defeat since the 1-5 loss to The Netherlands in 1998 and immediately led to calls for Mr Peseiro to be sacked.

Apart from the humiliating scoreline, the Eagles failed to perform at all on the day, only having about three shots on target and were totally dominated when it came to possession. Apart from that, Mr Peseiro has a very poor record since taking over five months ago, with five losses and two wins from seven games.

Despite the deafening calls for his sacking the NFF board has passed a dreaded vote of confidence in the coach. Normally such votes are a prelude to an eventual sacking but one NFF official said that it was too early to entertain such thoughts.

He added: “Peseiro has just started and we need to be patient with him. He has also won the two games that were important, that is the qualifiers for the Nations Cup. Friendlies are just friendlies and we will judge him on the qualifiers.”

Nigeria's Super Eagles will return to action in a 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Guinea-Bissau in March 2023. Since the Portugal game, the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes have castigated the Super Eagles for not testing them at all.