Super Eagles Head coach Gernot Rohr has cautioned against what he termed “Usual African Problem “at the World Cup, a veiled reference to distractions caused by money.
He therefore appealed to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to do well to avoid such distraction, as he called for united voice ahead of the tournament.
Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, Rohr said that his desire was to have a united team both inside and outside the squad, including the NFF and any other persons involved in the mundial.
In this regard,he urged the NFF to ensure that all bonuses and other entitlements of the players were resolved to avoid any distraction to the team which may erode the unity now in the squad.
“My first goal now is to have a united voice not only around the team but also around us. When I said united team, I mean everybody around the federation should be thinking in the same direction. If you want to do something and get good result, you must prepare well for that. We want the same solidarity as we have in the team because the team and the staff have a united solidarity and we wish to have the same around because this is the first major outing we are going to make.
“It will be good if we don’t have any money problems about the bonuses and the usual African problems as we have severally seen in each World Cup. I think we don’t really need those distractions; we should rather have a conducive environment to prepare for the matches. On our part as the technical crew, we have resolved to give our best. But we want to clear from the president that all will be agreed before starting the championship,” he said.
On his ambition at the World Cup, Rohr set a modest Round of 16 outing already met by two previous handlers, Clemens Westerhorf and late Stephen Keshi.
He added that the performance of the team would be determined principally by the level of preparation it gets, the attitude of players as well as the readiness of the NFF to beef up the team with a psychologist and may be an extra physiotherapist.
“We have to be a united family and not people who only want to come in for money, I think we have a good staff and good people, if we need somebody more, I should have them like a psychologist, a second physiotherapist for the physical preparation during the camping for the World Cup,” Rohr added.
