Saintfiet to bring foreign assistants
By ROMANUS UGWU, Abuja
Tuesday, April 03 , 2012
Ahmed Musa in action.
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will not stand in the way of its newly-appointed football director, Tom Saintfiet, to bring foreign assistants. It was learned that the Belgian has been told he could work with two foreign assistants of his choice. However, the former Ethiopian and Namibian head coach will have a Nigerian deputy, who will understudy him for the four-year period of his contract with the football federation.
Former Nigerian Under-23 coach, James Peters, has been linked with the deputy technical director role.
It is also unclear if Saintfiet will be responsible for the wages of his foreign assistants.
“Saintfiet reserves the rights to bring, at least, two foreign assistants of his choice,” an NFF source told SuperSport.com. “I don’t know if he or the NFF will pay the assistannts, but he was told he could bring two assistants at least. But the NFF has said his deputy, who works directly with him, must be a Nigerian, who will learn the curve of being a technical director.
“Right now James Peters looks as the man who will get the job of deputy technical director. But it is still not confirmed because Tom Saintfiet has not signed the contract.”
Saintfiet will officially sign as Nigeria’s technical director for four years this week.
“He is expected to arrive the country this week and hopefully sign the contract and resume immediately,” SuperSport.com was informed.
Saintfiet was named technical director of Nigeria on March 28 in the nation’s capital, Abuja and will earn a monthly salary of $20,000 (about N3.2 million).
