Over the years, sports have evolved to be a big business. All over the world, athletes and managers take their destiny in their own hands through their respective agents to get the best for them in the entire sports ecosystem.
Athletes strive to do better and earn better just as the same applies to the managers or coaches, who also try to go higher and get better. When age sets in, some of these athletes, especially footballers, move to less competitive leagues that could fetch them money.
The sports business is wide. It includes merchandising, sponsorship, marketing, lottery, ticketing among many others. In football specifically, business is more predominant as players and coaches are sold and bought just like we go out to get various household items in the market.
The only difference for football players is the fact that there is always a time slated for the transfers, when negotiations take place for movements. For coaches, it could be anytime. A coach is rated with his last set of games in most cases.
If a coach starts well and later could not maintain the standard with results, he could be fired. This can happen anytime.
There is no transfer season for coaches. Movement can be anytime and they can also get fired anytime. The Super Eagles of Nigeria were at the Africa Nations Cup in Morocco under the tutelage of Coach Eric Chelle. The team emerged the best attacking team at the tournament and the players generally did well, but they had just the bronze medal to show for their efforts.
Nigeria lost to Morocco on penalties in the semifinal and also went ahead to beat Egypt on penalties to clinch the bronze. In the end, there was a huge praise for Chelle and his boys for putting up such a performance at a time Nigerians were almost losing faith in the team over failure to qualify for the World Cup.
Many pundits also showered praises on Coach Chelle for the goal scoring prowess of the team and overall unity, which yielded results at the AFCON finals. And so, many people called on the Nigeria Football Federation to renew the contract of the Malian coach for continuity.
However, the NFF has been calm on the issue, but only recently, Chelle rolled out a 19-point demand for his contract renewal with the federation. The contract of the coach expires in13 months. He still has over one year to run out his contract and he is rather hasty with all the demands, apparently because of the way Nigerians celebrated the bronze medal won by the Super Eagles at the AFCON.
It is important to state that at the previous AFCON, Nigeria narrowly lost 2-1 to host, Cote d’Ivoire, to settle for the silver medal and so winning bronze after then was a step down achievement. Again, Nigeria won bronze medals many times in the past through domestic and foreign coaches and so I am surprised Chelle is thinking the bronze medal was a big deal for a country that has won the title three times in the past.
A coach earning $55,000 is now asking for $130,000. That is outrageous. He also said that his staff members should be earning salaries and bonuses.
How? I recall that some Nigerians, who managed the Super Eagles and were paid in naira, paid the salaries and bonuses of their direct assistants and staff members from their wages. The NFF also came out to state that some of the items on the 19-point demand are currently being provided.
“Chelle has accommodation, a car, and a driver. “He still has one year left on his current contract. These are fresh demands to be considered for renewal, which remains subject to debate, especially with these terms. This is for the technical committee to review before presenting to the board for approval,” NFF Secretary General Dr Mohammed Sanusi said.
I believe the proposed salary increase is the major bone of contention. The NFF can negotiate and come to an agreement, but the fact is that Chelle cannot hold the country into ransom.
Rather the NFF should be in-charge with the negotiations and if the terms are too difficult to be met, Eric Chelle should just GO!
It is just important for the federation to act fast since the Malian is trying to use the pedigree of Nigeria and the Super Eagles to further raise his profile in the market, so to say. It is also important to remember that there is an AFCON qualifier billed for March in the calendar of CAF.
The NFF should not be distracted with the demands of Chelle, the federation can up his pay a little to what is affordable and then look into other important areas, but he should pay his assistants or direct staff from his wages.
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