Tensions have risen within Nigerian League Champions, Enyimba FC, as Head Coach Finidi George disclosed unsettling details about how the club’s management unilaterally signed and registered players without his approval.

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George expressed his concerns, stating, “Out of 19 new players that were brought in, I had knowledge of only 4 of them. When I saw the quality of the players that were brought, I called Ekwueme, the Sporting Director, and asked what the target for the season is, he said it is just to stabilize in the league as the focus is to settle down first.”

He went on to explain, “Ideally, before registering players for any competition, the coaches must be consulted to submit the list. But that wasn’t the case here.”

The situation seemed problematic for George, who continued, “For whatever flimsy reason, we were not consulted, and they did the registration themselves.

As a result, some of the players we would have needed were not registered. It was much later that the sporting director just sent us the list of players that they had already registered.”

Recounting a frustrating incident, George added, “After the first leg, they dropped some players from traveling for the second leg in Casablanca, claiming that they couldn’t get them visas. We had to protest it strongly before it was rectified. We later found out that there was more to it.”

The coach expressed disbelief, saying, “Can you imagine that we went for such a game without the goalkeeping and fitness coaches? Myself and Yema were the only coaches that traveled for that game. That is very strange to me.”

George called for unity, stating, “Everyone has to put the interest of the club first because until this is done, we would only be joking.”

He also detailed challenges in preparations, revealing, “We arrived in Uyo on October 17 with the idea to have as many training sessions as possible on the grass pitch in Uyo since we are more used to our synthetic pitch.”

But things didn’t go as planned. He explained, “We couldn’t really achieve that because the management failed to make the right arrangements with the stadium authorities.

As a result, we improvised and had one of our training sessions at a primary school, while another training session was cut short because of the same poor arrangements.”

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George highlighted the challenges faced by the team, stating, “In fact, we played a team that was more used to the playing surface than us, the home team. It was obvious that we were at a disadvantage as a team used to artificial pitches and this really affected us.”

He also raised concerns about limited practice with the match ball, “We had only three trainings with the AFL match ball, meanwhile, our opponents had enough time to get used to it. That was why you could see my players struggling with their control, passing, and shooting.”

In conclusion, George expressed his disappointment over the public release of such statements during a critical time, saying, “It is sad to see such statements being released when all hands should be on deck, and things should be more organized to enable a positive environment for all.” He called for unity and highlighted the successes achieved under the coaching staff’s leadership.