The coach of the Cranes of Uganda Milutin
Sredojevic popularly refereed to as Micho who
made history by qualifying Uganda for their
first ever Africa Cup of Nations since 1978,
would have been the coach of Nigeria were it
not for power play, politics and intrigues of
the Nigeria football system.
Before the appointment of Sunday Oliseh as
coach of the Super Eagles, Micho was the
front runner for the job after he was proposed
to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) by
match agent Jairo Pachon.
President of the NFF Amaju Pinnick took his
board members by surprise when he held talks
with former Nigeria national team captain
Sunday Oliseh and offered him the job as
opposed to Micho.
After Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the Africa
Cup of Nations, Micho was once again
approached few months before the Paul Le
Guen fiasco but this time around interest in
the office of the NFF president put a stop to
it.
Pinnick waxed lyrical about his preference for
a Serbian coach but settled for French man Le
Guen who later turned down the job. But prior
to that time, Micho’s appointment would have
been rubber stamped were it not for greed
among close allies of the NFF supremo.
An unnamed ally of the president of the NFF
wanted the coach to dump the man who
proposed him for the job in Jairo Pachon for
him, but the Serbian refused and insisted on
the Colombian match agent of the NFF.
It didn’t go down well with the said individual,
who in turn turned the head of the NFF
president against appointing the Serb. His loss
happened to be Uganda’s gain as while Nigeria
missed out on a second consecutive AFCON,
Uganda under Micho are going to be there for
the first time in 38 years.
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