The immediate past head coach of the senior national team of Libya Milutin Sredojevic popularly known as Micho has explained why he left his role as coach of the senior national team of Nigeria after the last round of games in the AFCON qualifiers, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Libya started their campaign in the series with a 1-1 draw at home to Rwanda before losing 1-2 away to Benin Republic. Micho it was reported was fired after the game but the coach says that isn’t the true picture behind his exit from the team.
In an exclusive interview with Babafemi Raji on the TOPMOST SPORTS SHOW on LASGIDI 90.1FM. The coach cleared the air on his exit stating clearly that his contract will run out at the end of this month and he isn’t open to renewing it, hence his exit.
“First of all I need to tell that last year in October, I signed a one year contract and it was to take charge of the national team that played 32 matches and won only 8”, he told the fast rising radio show anchored by the former media officer of the Super Eagles.
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“In rebuilding the team, In one year of my stay in Libya we played 16 matches winning 9. So in one year I won more matches than Libya did in 4 years. I lost only two matches however I shall be offered in July extension of the contract, but it will be conditioned to the league and calendar being set in order for the team to be ready”.
He added that failure for the league to start as expected and with the back to back games coming up against Nigeria in October, he decided to walk away from his role and not like he was sacked as widely reported.
“We are the only team in Africa that has gone in preparations in the matches for the qualifiers and without being fit and ready. Even all our clubs they have gone out of the African club tournament. So after playing first two matches with unprepared team, League was supposed to start and due to the fact that my contract is expiring, I was refusing to extend the contract because of the league not starting and i cannot face Nigeria unprepared when you play equal matches in competitive way”.
Micho maintained that he still remains the only coach to have completed his tenure as coach of Libya in their history, which in his words is a very difficult team to manage owing to the fact that the country is segmented into two divisions in governance, with one faction loyal to the West while the other pledge its allegiance to Russia leaving him with a huge responsibility of bringing unity to the team.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
