By Maduabuchi Kalu on July 27, 2016

More reactions are still trailing the ouster of the Flying Eagles from next year’s African Youth Championship, which Zambia will be hosting. It is recalled that Nigerians were on Saturday heart broken when the Coach Emmanuel Amuneke tutored side succumbed to 3-4 defeat at the Teslim Balogun Stadium and since then, Nigerians have been ruining the ouster of the team.

The latest reaction is coming from a former member of the Delta State Sports Commission, Hon Ejiro Etoroma, who blamed over-confidence for the team’s defeat on Saturday. Etoroma who described the Flying Eagles’ defeat as sad and unfortunate said he believed the team had thought that since they defeated the Sudanese in Khartoum, the return leg was going to be an easy task forgetting that football is full of surprises.

“I must tell you that the Flying Eagles’ lost on Saturday is so sad and unfortunate to say the least,” Etorma began.

“Nobody saw this coming more so, when the team had won the first leg in Khartoum. I personally felt so bad because I had already seen the team in Zambia next year but that is not going to happen.

“As for me, I believe that both the players and the technical crew have learnt from this, particularly the players because they are the main actors on the field. No matter how good a coach is, he cannot step into the pitch to play for his team unless he is coach player.

“My take, however, is that it was over-confidence that killed us on Saturday. I believe that Flying Eagles underrated the Sudanese having beaten them in the first leg and they thought that having achieved victory in Sudan the return leg would be a foregone conclusion.

“Despite the loss, I believe that both the players and the technical crew have learnt some lessons from it though in a hard way,” Etoroma said.

When informed that the team had threatened to down tool over none payment of their four months arrears of bonuses and allowances, the experienced sports administrator was shocked and asked whether the country is cursed in football administration. He, however, does not see that as the main reason Flying Eagles lost the crucial game at home.

“Talking of none payment of bonuses and allowances, are we cursed in football administration in this country? When are we going to learn? Well, this has become a recurrent decimal in our football and I don’t know when it is going to stop.

“Having said that I don’t believe that it was a major reason Flying Eagles lost that game. I am not in any way justifying the non-payment of the bonuses and allowances to the players, far from it,” Etoroma explained.      

•Photo shows Flying Eagles.

Source Daily Sports

Posted July 27, 2016

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