A minute silence in honour of late Coach Amodu Shuaibu will be observed before all fixtures of Match Day 22 of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) kicks off this weekend.
Amodu died in the early hours of Saturday in Benin and the League Management Company (LMC) directed all Match Commissioners and Club Officials to ensure that players paid their last respect to the one time Coach of BCC Lions and El-Kanemi Warriors before the matches kick-off.
The LMC enjoined the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) where the late Coach served as Technical Director and Chief Instructor for all CAF Graded Coaching Courses, the people of his home state, Edo State and the entire football stakeholders to bear the loss with fortitude, noting that “in his lifetime, Amodu served Nigeria’s football with commitment and made Edo State proud”.
“Amodu was one of the Coaches that brought style and panache to club Coaching in Nigeria. He made the league lively with his exploits at the various clubs he managed before joining the national team on four different occasions”, remarked Shehu Dikko, the LMC Chairman in sorrowful tones.
Amodu won the FA Cup with BCC Lions of Gboko and El-Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri and would also guide BCC Lions to win the Africa Winners Cup now named CAF Confederation Cup. He guided Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) to the finals of the CAF Champions League and at different times coach Sharks FC and Niger Tornadoes. As the Super Eagles Coach at four different times, he guided the teams through 15 World Cup qualifiers, won 12 and drew three but never lost any.
As club coach, the late Amodu was one of those that brought glamour to the bench in his dapper suits and colourful ties and was seen as the Young Turk who upstaged the older generation coaches like late Willy Bazuaye, Jossy Ladipo, Monday Sinclair, Alabi Aisien and James Peters.
Dikko described the late Coach as “a resource person who will remembered in the history of our football for never hesitating to respond to the Football Federation especially during difficult moments of the senior national team, the Super Eagles”.
His remains was interred at 4pm on Saturday, June 11 according to Islamic rites in his home town, Okpella in Edo State.