NFF has powers to hire and fire but…. – Okpala

Disengaged Assistant Coach of the Super Eagles, Sylvanus Okpala has said he does not begrudge the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF for relieving him of his position with the senior national team since they have the power to hire and fire coaches.
He however, said that in doing so, the NFF owes any disengaged employee the obligation of paying him or her her full entitlements, failure of which the employee could seek redress like he has done by taking his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Sylvanus Okpala

Okpala said he resorted to CAS to get the NFF pay him because the contract he has with the football house states that “any dispute arising from or related to the present contract will be submitted exclusively to Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland and resolved definitely in accordance with the Code of sports-related arbitration.”
“After they served me a letter to disengage me from my services in the Super Eagles in April last year, my lawyer wrote them to pay me off since I had a contract which runs till after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil but they failed to respond,” he said.
He said that after exhausting all avenues to help plead with the NFF to pay him his money, including writing to the Senate and House Committees on sports, without any positive result, he had to go to CAS since the NFF president, Aminu Maigari had vowed not to pay him even if  President Goodluck Jonathan intervened.
“The truth is that they (NFF) have the right to hire and fire even if it is 100 coaches but they have one obligation, that is to pay off anyone they sack. If he has a 3-year contract but stays for only one month, they have to pay him off his three year contract or sit with him and negotiate how to pay this money. That is what I want now, they should pay me off my contract.”
The former Rangers of Enugu defender added that contrary to insinuations from some quarters that he was sacked from the Super Eagles for insubordination, the NFF state clearly in their letter to him that their action was based on “limited financial resources” to “maintain a 17-man technical/backroom staff for the Super Eagles.”
“They even commended me for the way I worked for the team and wrote that my “toil, high passion for the job and painstaking commitment no doubt contributed to the Super Eagles triumph at the 29th Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.”