The NFF Director of Communications Ademola Olajire confirmed in an interview with HotSports that Finidi was the obvious candidate for the position due to his coaching resume and experience as an assistant coach with the Super Eagles when Jose Peseiro was in charge of the club.
He said,
I’m not a member of the Technical Committee but I can also look at a lot of positives around Finidi George. Finidi George was not only a great football player, he has prepared himself very well and done himself no harm with the laurels he has been able to acquire in his short period as a coach. He had the option of remaining in Spain and taking up an appointment with a second tier club but he chose to come back to Nigeria and start with an NPFL club.”
He also spoke about what Finidi has been able to achieve since he has been in charge of Enyimba.
“He started with Enyimba. In his second season, he won the league title. It is not easy to win the league title so we must praise him for that and looking at the log now, this is his third season with the team and with four matches to go he’s well on the way to retaining the title. This is no mean feat and it shows that this is a man who knows what he’s doing. Pertaining to the Super Eagles, he worked for twenty months as an assistant with Jose Peseiro, that gives him head start over anybody. It’s natural that someone of this stature, someone who has accomplished these things and who has been very close to the team gets the nod, with the fact that we have only five weeks to to very important matches.”
Finidi was appointed as a replacement for Jose Peseiro after the expiration of the Portuguese contract after leading the Super Eagles to the AFCON final. He will hope he can qualify Nigeria for the FIFA World Cup and the Africa Cup of Nations