Nigeria's former coach is said to have teamed up with those asking for a local coach for the senior women's team
Ismaila Mabo threw her support behind local coaches to win the vacant coaching position for the senior national team.
Recalled Thomas Dennerby left Super Falcons last September after being in charge for 18 months following a triumph in the 2018 Women's African Cup of Nations and a round of 16 in the 2019 Women's World Cup.
The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has started looking to fill the void left by Dennerby last year. Its president Amaju Pinnick promises to appoint a world class coach for the team.
However, Mabo, who was in charge of the team, urged the NFF to ban the idea of hiring an expatriate, noting that the country had good native coaches for the job.
Speaking to Complete Sports as reported by Sports Central, Mabo said: "After qualifying and playing in all but one of the previous Women’s World Cups with Nigerian coaches, the NFF cannot just be thinking of another foreign coach for Super Falcons again. "The only one we tried did not do better than the previous coaches, so why hire an expatriate again? I am urging the powers that be at the NFF to jettison the idea of a foreign coach for our senior women's national team. "We have quality and proven coaches in our domestic leagues who can do the jobs. They should let our coaches get the experience and exposures to get better. “We have coaches whose clubs have dominated the domestic cups and the league over the years as well as ex-international players who are making forays as coaches in women's football. "These coaches should be given the chance to develop themselves and the Super Falcons. Our last experience with a foreign coach (Thomas Dennerby) was flawed as the man abandoned the Falcons without notice. “Our ex-international women have also delivered when given the chance and I want to plead that if they are not given the head coach’s job, they should get the assistant. "I admire the Rivers Angels and Bayelsa Queens' coaches. They are doing well like Ann (Chiejine) and Eucharia (Uche) are also faring well.
Nigerian coaches were involved in eight of the nine African Cup of Nations titles won by Nigeria, with Mabo leading the country to the first quarter-finals of the Women's World Cup in 1998.
