José Peseiro free to take another job or wait until after Ghana – Amaju Pinnick

The Nigeria Federation Football President Amaju Pinnick has revealed in an interview that Portuguese coach José Peseiro is free to move on or wait until after the Ghana games.

José Peseiro was announced as the new Super Eagles head coach by the NFF through a communique shortly after the sack of Gernot Rohr.

“After careful consideration of a memo presented by Chairman of the Technical and Development Sub-Committee, the Executive Committee endorsed a proposal for the appointment of Mr. Jose Peseiro as the new Head Coach of the Super Eagles, following the end to the relationship with Mr. Gernot Rohr,” the communique sent out in December reads.

The communique also revealed that Austin Eguavoen will lead the team to the 2021 AFCON as the interim coach.

“However, the Committee resolved that Mr. Augustine Eguavoen named the interim Head Coach, will lead the Super Eagles to the AFCON 2021 in Cameroon with Mr. Peseiro only playing the role of Observer.

“It was unanimously agreed that the AFCON is a good avenue for Mr. Peseiro to launch a working relationship with Mr. Eguavoen, who will revert to his role as Technical Director (hence Mr. Peseiro’s immediate boss) after the AFCON.”

But according to the interview, the NFF president granted on Channels TV no official agreement was reached between the NFF and José Peseiro.

“I am still talking to Jose Peseiro and maybe he has to wait till after the World Cup qualifiers against Ghana. If in the course of his waiting, he got another job, we wish him well.

“At the moment, we are still harmonizing with ourselves; the NFF, and the sports ministry. The Technical Committee had their meeting yesterday (Saturday) and they will submit their report.

“We will look at it and table it at the executive committee by tomorrow (today) and come out with a clear direction on where we are heading to.

“I have heard and seen a lot of things in the media. What we need to do is just to inject some kind of technical sagacity into that team. I believe once that is done, we should be able to be done and dusted and that is exactly what we are trying to do.”

Amaju Pinnick also confirmed that José Peseiro has not signed a contract with the federation and can take other jobs if he can’t wait until after the Ghana games.

“The good thing is that we have not officially signed with Peseiro but I am still in talk with him. He is somebody that is very eager, and if you look at Portugal, it is the country that is blessed with good coaches.

“Cameroon coach is a Portuguese, Egyptian coach, Carlos Quiroz is a Portuguese. The truth is, we will look at the recommendation of the technical committee: I have never worked alone; we allow our committee to function and once they submit their report, the whole world would know our next direction,” Amaju noted.

Earlier today, Emmanuel Amuneke denied having any agreement with the NFF but the federation is reportedly counting on him and Austin Eguavoen to lead the team past Ghana.

Nigeria and Ghana go head-to-head over two legs, first in Kumasi and the return leg in Abuja to determine who will pick the ticket to Qatar 2022.