The Nigeria national football team’s coach Gernot Rohr will remain in charge despite Sunday’s semi-final loss to Algeria.
The Super Eagles lost-2-1 to Algeria, thanks to an impressive stoppage time free-kick from Riyad Mahrez.
The West African side had hoped to win their fourth AFCON title in the 2019 tournament, but will now have to settle to battle Tunisia on Wednesday for a third-place finish.
“Gernot Rohr will not be sacked as Super Eagles coach. He will remain in the job. I have complete confidence in him,” the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick revealed.
“Gernot has taken us to the semi-final, the target we set for him. Right now, we have a third-place match to play for and we intend to have our team leave Egypt with honours.
“There are some people that have been calling on me and the federation to sack Gernot. But I am not going to do that.
“In fact, Gernot is going on a refresher training period with Bayern Munich after the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. We have a long-term plan with him.”
Rohr had come under pressure after Sunday’s loss, with many Nigerians calling for his resignation on social media.
The 66-year-old however said the decision on his future with the Super Eagles would be made after Wednesday’s game.
“There is no hurry because we want to finish third now. We will take a look at my overall results after the third place match,” BBC quotes Rohr.
“I’m still under contract for another year, so we will see what is decided together.
“There are positives for us to look at on this journey, but after this final game we can think and then talk about the future.”
The 2019 AFCON was the first in which Nigeria participated since 2013 when it won the competition in South Africa.
The final game of the competition – pitting Algeria against Senegal – will be played on Friday.
While Algeria will be seeking their second AFCON title, Senegal will be after their maiden continental trophy.
The game will be played at the Cairo International Stadium at 1900GMT.
