NFF in search of coach for revived Supersand Eagles

The Nigeria Football Federation has opened a three-day window for applications to fill the position of head coach for the national beach soccer team otherwise known as the Supersand Eagles, nine days before their 2024 Beach Soccer AFCON qualifier against Mauritania, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

This also comes after the NFF made a move to revive the team after five years by setting up a committee to oversee the organisation of local competitions and deal with all matters relating to the game.

Nigeria’s last beach soccer coach, Audu Adamu Ejo who led the team to their second Beach Nations Cup title in 2009 passed on in 2021 after a brief illness.

As contained in the NFF’s announcement, the application will favour candidates with at least a CAF License C certificate and those involved in beach soccer activities in the last three years as well as playing experience locally and internationally.

“The Nigeria Football Federation has requested applications from suitably qualified candidates for the vacant position of the coach of Beach Soccer national team, otherwise known as Supersand Eagles,” the NFF announced on Wednesday.

“The public notice, which is on the Federation’s website has specified for candidates to have attended at least one beach soccer refresher course organised by the NFF, be conversant with, and abreast of, the ever-changing rules and dynamics of the game and possess at least CAF C Coaching License.

“Applications will close at midnight of Friday, July 12, 2024, with a successful candidate to be named in a matter of days, as the Supersand Eagles get set for a two-leg Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations qualifying fixture against their counterparts from Mauritania.”

Mauritania will host the Supersand Eagles on a day between July 19 and 21 with Nigeria hosting the return leg a week later.

Nigeria last participated in a Beach Soccer tournament at the 2019 World Cup in Paraguay where they failed to win any match.

Before the five-year hiatus, Nigeria has been a continental, and to some extent global, power in beach soccer in previous years, with the Supersand Eagles winning the Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations in 2007 and 2009 and reaching the quarter-finals of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Italy 13 years ago.