Remo Stars of Ikenne coach Daniel Ogunmodede has put aside his personal gains in the domestic football scene to talk about other tacticians on the home front and declared that Nigerian coaches need far-reaching support in order to attend refresher courses, Sports247 reports.
Speaking against the backdrop of his retention as an assistant coach in the technical crew of the Super Eagles, alongside Fidelis Ilechukwu of Enugu Rangers, Ogunmodede reckoned that other gaffers in the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) also have the ability to do what he is doing, but many of them lack top class certification.
He then faulted the current situation in which high-level coaching courses are not common in Nigeria, thereby leaving many talented tacticians without certificates that would make them recognised officially in the comity of top-class tacticians at home and abroad.
Ogunmodede, who was recently voted coach of the year after he won the NPFL title with Remo Stars, pondered: “In the last eight years, we just got a CAF licence course back in the country. What have our coaches been doing in those eight years? They have capacity, but they are not getting content!
“We have competent coaches who are even far better than I am. If they also had content that is accessible to them, they would do better … but it’s not accessible.”
The tall tactician then cited financial constraints as the biggest factor that prevents Nigerian coaches from attending courses and makes them unable to upgrade themselves with formal certificates.
“You will see somebody that has been coaching in the last 20 years but not yet certified. It’s simply because the opportunity is not available. He can not use his hard-earned money to attend a coaching course.
If he’s earning N50,000 a month, for instance, can he go and do a UEFA course of N5m? It’s not possible. So, it’s not about the quality of Nigerian coaches; it’s about what we’ve made available to them,” Ogunmodede posited.
