Sven Goran Eriksson Reveals How Corrupt Agents Prevented Him From Coaching Nigeria at World Cup

Sven Goran Eriksson Reveals How Corrupt Agents Prevented Him From Coaching Nigeria at World Cup

Ibitoye Shittu
updated at April 12, 2023 at 8:16 PM
  • Sven-Goran Eriksson says his failure to accept giving out half of his salary was why he lost the chance to coach Nigeria
  • That was in 2010 when the Super Eagles were preparing to travel to South Africa for the FIFA World Cup
  • Lars Lagerback was later appointed as Super Eagles coach and took the Nigerian team to South Africa

Former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has explained that he would have been the coach in charge of the Super Eagles of Nigeria for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

The Swede explained that his failure to accept giving out part of his salary was the major reason why he lost the chance to coach the three-time African champions.

In 2010, South Africa hosted the World Cup for the first time on the continent and Nigeria were among the five nations to represent Africa in the tournament.

Sven-Göran Eriksson, Super Eagles, NFF
Sven-Goran Eriksson reveals how corrupt agents prevented him from coaching Nigeria at World Cup. Photo by Matthew Ashton
Source: Getty Images

The NFF chiefs then under Sani Lulu Abdullahi and late Taiwo Ogunjobi who was the secretary were looking for a good coach to take the Super Eagles to South Africa.

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According to the explanation Eriksson made, he flew to Abuja to have talks with the Nigerian football chiefs on him becoming the coach of the Super Eagles.

The Swede just lost his job with Mexico then and he was happy to be called by the Nigerian chiefs for a chance to take the team to the World Cup.

What was said by Eriksson

''After the meeting in Abuja, they told me that half of my salary will be deposited in a special bank which I rejected and that was why I was not given the job.''

Former NFF chief involved

Earlier, Sports Brief had reported how a former official of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amos Adamu has been accused of receiving $2.3million to back the Qatar 2022 bid.

In 2017, the world's football governing body, FIFA handed Adamu a two-year ban from all football-related activities for ethics violations.

He had earlier served a three-year ban in 2010 for accepting bribes, in relation to the World Cup bids by Russia and the 2018 and 2022 tournaments by Qatar.

In an explosive Netflix series titled FIFA Uncovered, Phaedra Almajid - who is a member of Qatar’s World Cup bid team - made the allegations.

She stated that in January 2010, she was in a hotel room in Angola with Qatari official Hassan Al-Thawadi when money was offered to three men - Adamu, Issa Hayatou of Cameroon and Jacques Anouma of Ivory Coast.

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Ibitoye Shittu
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