Why contracts of Nigerian coaches are not respected
Before any undertaking in every sphere of human endeavour where two or more parties, there is usually a binding agreement between the parties stating what is expected from each. Even in marriages, men and women who desire holy matrimony will sign a pre-nuptial agreement that outlines what is expected of both parties in case of eventualities before they sign the dotted lines of a marriage certificate.
This is not different in sports, most especially in the game of football as footballers, coaches and not forgetting administrators sign contracts when joining a team or club. But back home in Nigeria, this does not seem to be the case as most of our coaches, especially those in the Nigeria Professional Football League are hired and fired at will by administrators. The reason for this that these coaches do not have binding contracts. This would not happen elsewhere, otherwise Manchester United’s Louis Van Gaal would have been sent packing in the thick of a dismal run in the English Premier League. Why is it different here in Nigeria or is it that our indigenous coaches love the status quo?.
Even in marriages, men and women who desire holy matrimony will sign a pre-nuptial agreement that outlines what is expected of both parties in case of eventualities before they sign the dotted lines of a marriage certificate. This is not different in sports, most especially in the game of football as footballers, coaches and not forgetting administrators sign contracts when joining a team or club.
The ordeal of a coach irrationally fired It was another chance for coach Samson Unuanel to prove to the world that he is not a tactically deficient coach as people felt after seeing his former side Kwara United relegated to the Nigeria National League (NNL). And like many any other tacticians, he applied for the Sunshine Stars job, to coach a team that narrowly missed a ticket to play on the continent. Fortunately for him he was picked as the club’s new boss.
"Everything was done in a professional way; a committee was set up and about six coaches were interviewed. I happened to be the last that was interviewed and I got the job on merit. That was how I was picked. “I told them during the interview before I take the job that my contract paper should be prepared and ready before I’m being unveiled. So I got my contract papers when I was unveiled and I was given a 3-year contract,” Unuanel said.
To Samson, it was an opportunity to win the Nigeria Professional Football League after several failed attempts, and to be able to provide for his family with his salary. Unknown to him, he was following a meandering route that had discomforted other coaches before him at the club. After three games of the new season he was kicked out by the club management who felt he had turned into a bad coach overnight for recording just one draw in three games.
“The very day Ola Mafo came on board, he called me and the technical director, Henry Abiodun and told us people advised him to sack us because we will be loyal to former Ondo State Football Agency head Akin Akinbobola. When I was eventually sacked, he called the two of us into his office and told us that because the two of us cannot work together, which is far from the truth.” At first, he felt bad about the sacking but summoned the courage to move on since he knew the work was all about hiring and firing.
The most intriguing part was that he is still owed his outstanding salary. According to coach Unuanel, he needed to feed himself, feed his family and pay his children’s school fees. All his efforts to get paid proved a wild goose chase as Sunshine Stars’ management kept pushing him around despite his lawyer and the League Management Company’s involvement. So sad! Previous cases of unexpected sacking It seems all the clubs want from coaches is for them to work and get fired when they are tired of them. Their welfare is not important. Coaches work for clubs but are not allowed to sign contracts. Every agreement is done vocally and the only paper given to the coaches are employment letters which some of the clubs take to be a contract.
In 2013, the now defunct Sharks Football Club of Port Harcourt axed the former national team coach Augustine Eguavoen because he asked for a well-documented contract and officials of the club refused. Okey Emordi woke one morning to find out that he had been relieved of his job as Kano Pillars’ tactician without any form of compensation. And not too long ago, Heartland FC sacked coach Bethel Orji after three games of the season.
Some are of the opinion that the managements of Nigeria Professional Football League clubs are not ready to give coaches contracts because they don’t want to be held liable when anything happens during the season. Clubs don’t like giving contracts to their coaches because then they can be sacked at any time. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Whatsapp Coach Emmanuel Amuneke Ladan Bosso, a former national under-20 team coach, said coaches should be more insistent about receiving a contract: “I want to say that majority of the coaches don’t have valid contracts.
I have decided to use valid contracts because what most of us have is just one paper where we write our names and then the salary and allowances are stated. A proper contract must contain more than names and other things. This is what we should be striving for when any club says they want our services. “Why is it that clubs just sack coaches with thinking of the consequences or paying enough compensation? We should not look cheap in the eyes of club administrators. I know we have good coaches in Nigeria. And I know the conditions in which they work. But we can make it easier on ourselves if we don’t give clubs the room to treat us shabbily.” Some have blamed the coaches themselves, who are always impatient to sign because they are desperate for a job.
However, others have pointed out that they will never get contracts and they cannot do anything about the situation. What the Nigerian constitution says about contracts An employment contract is said to be wrongfully terminated where it is done so in breach of the terms of the employment contract between the parties, which usually prescribes a notice period or payment in lieu of notice.
Termination or dismissal could be said be ‘unfair’ where, though valid by the terms of the employment contract, it is without reason or it is for reasons unconnected with the employee’s performance or conduct, or the operational requirements of the undertaking.
Unlike Nigeria, UK labour laws recognize the concept of ‘unfair dismissal’. The Employment Rights Act (ERA) provides that employees are entitled to a fair reason before being dismissed, based on their ability to do the job, their conduct, redundancy, on grounds of a statute, or some other substantial reason. This means an employer may only terminate an employee’s job lawfully if the employer follows a fair procedure, acts reasonably and has a fair reason.
It is surprising that some of these coaches have legal advisers yet they still fall prey to what would seem to be unfair dismissal. Does it not suggest that their lawyers are not doing their jobs? Barrister Wole Ogunranti disagrees:“You won’t fault the lawyers but the people. As a result of unemployment in the country, they take any kind of thing from anybody. The only way [lawyers] could be blamed is if you have heard coaches being misled by their lawyers who advised them to take a job without a valid contract. “And if that is not the case, it would be unfair to blame the lawyers. Our coaches must ensure they take their time in reading the terms and conditions in their contracts, else they would be slaves in their country.”
The view of the Nigeria Football Coaches Association It was a near impossible task reaching top officials of the Nigeria Football Federation and the League Management Company. So, Naij.com contacted the organisation representing football coaches in the country. The secretary of the Nigeria Football Coaches Association, Solomon Ogbeide, lamented the poor treatment of coaches in Nigeria, but vowed to keep working hard to make sure that coaches in Nigeria get better treatment. “We are going to do our best to protect any coach that his right is trampled upon. It is not true coaches don’t sign contracts.
I am supposed to know because I am the secretary of the Nigeria Coaches Association. “The number of coaches that don’t sign contracts is small compared to the ones that sign in our League. But I must confess that it is not good the way Eguavoen has been treated. Yes the contract can go to the Ministry of Justice, but it should have been done before the start of the season. “All they have to do is to make sure that they finished the paper work before the start of the new season and hand it over to him,” said Solomon Ogbeide. Plausible as this optimism may sound, the fact still remains that many coaches are the architects of their own problems in the Nigerian league. Until coaches make bold decisions not to accept work without proper contracts, club administrators will continue to exploit them for cheap labour.
