New Telegraph

COVID-19 restrictions: Rohr shunned Eguavoen’s advice on Plan B – Lawal

…says Technical Director wants more homebased stars on list
….fears more Eagles may opt out of AFCON qualifiers

Ex-international Garba Lawal has expressed fears many foreignbased players may opt out Nigeria’s African Cup of Nations qualifiers with Benin Republic and Lesotho due to COVId-19 restrictions in Europe but the former midfielder insisted Manager Gernot Rohr should be blamed should crisis occurred. It is still unclear how many Nigeria’s foreign-based players will be available for the AFCON ties as many European clubs have announced they would stop their players from going on international break due to COVID-19 restrictions rules. Rohr has named a 25-man squad with all of them except Enyimba’s John Noble coming from Europe.

Lawal, who is now the Chief Technical Officer of the Nigeria Football Federation revealed that the Super Eagles Manager rebuffed recommendations by the Technical Director Austin Eguavoen that homebased players should be drafted in as Plan B. He said the Technical Director had envisaged crisis that might emanate from the COVID-19 restrictions in Europe and urged Rohr to set up a team comprising of homebased stars who could step in should their foreign-based counterparts opted out. “Instead of listening to him, the coach invited players with all of them coming from Europe.

Even Technical Director Eguavoen didn’t see the list before it came out. He only read it on social media like any other Nigerians. “What can we do if a coach believes he’s better than everybody? The point is that when you are making your list of foreign-based players, you must have your plan B in local players because of the circumstances we have found ourselves.

“If these players didn’t come, what are we going to do? Are we going to start calling new players with days to the matches and there is no way you can take these players from their clubs and now we don’t have the time. “The Technical Director told him that but the coach chose to do the other thing. He just dropped the list and travelled out of the country almost immediately,” he said

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