Nigeria sack Siasia after Nations Cup failure
Reuters - Saturday 29 October 2011, 08:41
Nigeria's Samson Siasia has
become the third African coaching casualty in a week as the
fallout from the Nations Cup qualifiers continued to claim
victims.
Siasia was dismissed after a meeting of the Nigerian
Football Federation (NFF) on Friday, before his removal was
confirmed by officials a day later.
His sacking follows the departures of Javier Clemente at
Cameroon and Tom Saintfiet from the Ethiopia post in the last
seven days.
The 44-year-old, who played for Nigeria at the 1994 World
Cup and later coached the country's under-23 team to the silver
medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was fired after Nigeria's
shock failure to qualify for next year's finals.
Nigeria finished runners-up in their group after failing to
beat Guinea at home in their decisive group game earlier this
month.
A statement said Siasia and his assistants "breached a key
proviso in their contract with the NFF and their services are
therefore promptly dispensed with," a reference to the minimum
requirement of qualifying for the Nations Cup.
A successor would be discussed next week, officials said.
Former Spain manager Clemente was fired by Cameroon on
Monday after they too, missed out on the Nations Cup, being
co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon from January 21 to February
12.
Belgian coach Tom Saintfiet said on Friday he was leaving
his job as Ethiopia coach after just five months, citing broken
promises for his departure.
"Despite the many positives, some agreements were not
honoured and that is the reason for this decision," he said in
an e-mail to Reuters.
Saintfiet had been in charge for three Nations Cup
qualifiers since June, including a 2-2 draw with Nigeria that
contributed to the Super Eagles missing out on the finals.