Nff to name saintfiet as technical director

Technical Department faces re-organisation
THE executive board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is expected to name the former technical adviser of Ethiopian and Namibian national teams, Tom Saintfiet, as the new technical director of the Super Eagles when the board meets next Wednesday.
The Guardian learnt that the Belgian coach was chosen ahead of Roland Anderson, who was an assistant to Super Eagles’ former technical adviser, Lars Largerback, whose name was top on the four-man list submitted by the technical committee for consideration.
It was also gathered that the federation acknowledged that Anderson was the most favoured but it could not settle for the Swedish coach because of the manner his former boss, Largerback, abandoned the team immediately after its ouster from the South Africa 2010 World Cup.
The NFF executive committee is expected to meet in Abuja next Wednesday (the eve of the Annual General Meeting) slated for Kaduna, to announce the new technical director as well as Super Falcons’ coach.
Confirming the board meeting date yesterday in Abuja, the NFF Chief Media Officer, Ademola Olajire, told to The Guardian that the technical committee has forwarded its four-man list of preferred candidates for the executive committee to choose from, adding that the board would, at the meeting, announce the chosen candidate for the job.
“The technical committee has concluded its job on screening of the coaches that applied for the vacant technical director job and the list of the four recommended candidates has been forwarded to the executive committee, which is expected to meet on the eve of the December 29 Annual General Meeting in Kaduna,” he said. “So the choice of the federation will be announced on December 28.”
Meanwhile, it has been officially learnt that the NFF has concluded plans to fully reorganise the technical department with the coming of the new director, who is expected to resume job in January 2012.
A top official of the federation disclosed that the NFF has decided to recall former assistant director at the technical department, James Peters, who was sacked early this year, to work directly with the incoming foreign technical director, adding that the department would be fully overhauled as soon as the officers assume duties in January.