Chelle's Appointment: Integrity Group Calls For Calm

With the recent appointment of 47 year-old UEFA Pro Licenced Franco-Malian, Èric Seykou Chelle, as the coach of Nigeria's senior male national team, Super Eagles, and the observed public opinion it is generating, *Sport Integrity Foundation a.k.a Integrity Group* wishes to call for calm and focus by all Nigerians.

Our investigation revealed that due process was followed in the conduct leading to the announcement of Chelle as the national team coach. Expertise and recommendation of the Technical Department was followed by inputs of the technical sub-committee and ratification by the board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

We discovered that *Tactical Sagacity* and *Economic Viability* was prioritised by the NFF before deciding on the choice of the coach. Considering the early yearnings of the public that the NFF appoint a substantive coach before returning for the World Cup qualifiers in March, the decision to hire Èric Chelle was done in the best interest of Nigerian football.

We hereby urge Nigerians not to be discriminative of the Franco-Malian as this will be against the ethos of sporting integrity and global practicability of sports.
 
We also noticed that Chelle belongs to the *Golden Age* of African football, where former African internationals between *age 40 and 48* are dominating football on the continent, winning AFCON titles and qualifying African national teams for the World Cup. Ex-internationals such as *Aliou Cisse, Emerse Fae, Otto Ado, Walid Regragui, Rigobert Song* all are within this age bracket. We can recollect the way the late *Stephen Keshi* was given the opportunity to lead *Hawks of Togo* on three different stints as coach, and *Eagles of Mali* between 2008-2010. Also, *Emmanuel Amuneke* was given the chance in *Tanzania*. 

We therefore call on every football-loving Nigerians to get behind Eric Chelle and give him all the support and cooperation to navigate the World Cup qualifiers and come out with constructive criticisms to make him succeed and qualify for the Mundial next year to be jointly co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. If Chelle succeeds we all succeed.