Emefiele, Otedola, Others Distracted Super Eagles With Monetary Rewards, Ex-Goalkeeper Claims

A former goalkeeper of the Super Eagles, Peterside Idah, has said that the national team were distracted during the match against Tunisia by the calls and promises made by both government officials and businessmen.

Idah made his position known on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ programme on Monday.

Nigeria lost to a Tunisian side that had twelve of their players and five coaching staff out due to Covid-19.

Since the end of the Sunday clash, Nigerians have been playing the blame game.

The Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele, the Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace, Allen Onyema and the Nigerian Football Federation President, Amaju Pinnick, Femi Otedola among others had made huge promises to the players in a bid to motivate the team.

The interim coach at the competition, Austin Eguavoen had in a bid to avoid distractions banned officials and the NFF boss from the team’s dressing room.

The former goalkeeper said that Tunisia had nothing to lose and went into the game as underdogs.

Idah argued that the Super Eagles entered into the game believing they had already won the 2021 African Cup of Nations.

He said, “We should have won that game. I think we were on the better side. They were very tactical. I think we didn’t do what we should have done in the beginning of the game.

“They gave us so much respect and we should have utilised that opportunity. For me, the game was a little bit slow. They tried to slow it down. They knew we were quicker and better. We should have just pushed them.

“In our mind we all felt this was a foregone conclusion and we did not plan for them, but they planned for us. You could see that tactically; they were superior in the sense that they knew what they wanted to do.”

He said the promises made to the payers was a huge distraction.

Idah added, “We can’t have the President of the NFF addressing the players in the second half. That is not his responsibility. We can’t have the CBN governor addressing the players at halftime. That is not his responsibility. We can’t have the owner of Air Peace addressing the players at halftime. What time will the coach have to bring?

“There is a psychology of football. When you go to play football, you start from zero. You don’t go as a winner because you underestimate your opponent. I said this before that in our dressing room, we had officials that were not football coaches going to address the players and I said this over and over again. The mindset of a player is very fickle.

“He has to think of the match 100 per cent. He doesn’t have to think about money; he doesn’t have to think about family problems or women. He has to think about football.”