Former Super Eagles Coach, Sunday Oliseh, has lambasted the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) for stripping Desire Oparanozie of the captaincy and dropping her from the Super Falcons set up.
The erstwhile Super Falcons Captain had spearheaded a protest against the federation over unpaid bonuses.
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This also led to the Dijon of France player being struck off the list of players for an upcoming friendly tournament in Turkey despite stellar performances at club level.
Reacting to the turn of events, the former Super Eagle bared his mind during a Punch Online sports program programme, Kick&Follow.
The midfielder, who captained Nigeria at the Nigeria-Ghana 2000 AFCON tournament, also led several protests during his heydays.
This ultimately led to his banishment from the national squad, and he has knocked the Amaju Pinnick-led for taking similar actions.
“What they did to this girl (Oparanozie) is criminal because she did not do anything wrong. Nigeria is a good nation, but we can improve on attacking the victim. The victim, in this case, is Oparanozie.”
The former Juventus, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax Amsterdam player further knocked Oparanozie’s colleagues for not standing by their captain, stating that the future does not bode well for others in the event of a similar event.
“Her colleagues should have done just one thing – If you punish our captain, we are not also coming. My position at the Olympics helped us so much and I had the support of my teammates.
“What they did to this girl (Oparanozie) hurts me so much and I tweeted that where are your teammates. In a team, you have people who want to wear the band to shake the hands. They don’t want to go through the pains. Those ones will be happy that they punished her (Oparanozie). It is not a matter of turn by turn. You are serving your country.”
Super Falcons Coach Randy Waldrum has invited the match rusty trio of 38-year-old Onome Ebi, Francisca Ordega, and Chinwendu Ihezuo who had not played any competitive match for any club for over 11 months to replace Oparanozie.
Oparanozie was part of the Super Falcons squad that protested against unpaid bonuses at the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France.
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