Although, the NFF had earlier announced the appointment of José Peseiro through a communique quickly after the sack of Gernot Rohr.
Still in the interview, Mr Pinnick revealed that no official agreement was reached between the federation and Peseiro.
Also he disclosed that Austin Eguaveon will be in charge of the team and will be assisted by Emmanuel Amunike for the world Cup qualifiers tie. Emmanuel Amunike has distance himself from such information that he is not aware of such appointment.
“After careful consideration of a memo presented by Chairman of the Technical and Development Sub-Committee, the Executive Committee endorsed a proposal for the appointment of Mr. Jose Peseiro as the new Head Coach of the Super Eagles, following the end to the relationship with Mr. Gernot Rohr,” the communique sent out in December reads.
“However, the Committee resolved that Mr. Augustine Eguavoen named the interim Head Coach, will lead the Super Eagles to the AFCON 2021 in Cameroon with Mr. Peseiro only playing the role of Observer.
“It was unanimously agreed that the AFCON is a good avenue for Mr. Peseiro to launch a working relationship with Mr. Eguavoen, who will revert to his role as Technical Director (hence Mr. Peseiro’s immediate boss) after the AFCON.”
“I am still talking to Jose Peseiro and maybe he has to wait till after the World Cup qualifiers against Ghana. If in the course of his waiting, he got another job, we wish him well.
“At the moment, we are still harmonizing with ourselves; the NFF, and the sports ministry. The Technical Committee had their meeting yesterday (Saturday) and they will submit their report.
“We will look at it and table it at the executive committee by tomorrow (today) and come out with a clear direction on where we are heading to.
“I have heard and seen a lot of things in the media. What we need to do is just to inject some kind of technical sagacity into that team. I believe once that is done, we should be able to be done and dusted and that is exactly what we are trying to do.”
“The good thing is that we have not officially signed with Peseiro but I am still in talk with him. He is somebody that is very eager, and if you look at Portugal, it is the country that is blessed with good coaches.
“Cameroon coach is a Portuguese, Egyptian coach, Carlos Quiroz is a Portuguese. The truth is, we will look at the recommendation of the technical committee: I have never worked alone; we allow our committee to function and once they submit their report, the whole world would know our next direction,” Amaju reported.
Nigeria and Ghana go head-to-head over two legs, first in Kumasi and the return leg in Abuja to determine who will pick the ticket to Qatar 2022.
