'For now we are not thinking of a foreign coach,' Nigeria sports ministry spokesman Victor Ireole said. 'We do not have the time to hire a foreign coach now because getting one will cause us a lot of problems.'

Sports Minister Ishaya Aku said on Monday that Onigbinde, 62, technical director of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), will lead a new squad to this year's World Cup in Korea and Japan.

He will also build a team for the All Africa Games in 2003, the 2004 Olympics in Greece, the 2004 African Nations Cup in Tunisia in 2004, the minister said.

'Our dream is to build a team for the future,' Ireole said. 'Onigbinde is a no-nonsense coach and given his wealth of experience, he has the capacity to actualise our dream,' he said.

SOCCER MAD

Shaibu Amodu and his staff were sacked on Monday after Nigeria's disappointing performance at the African Nations Cup in Mali where the Super Eagles lost 2-1 to fellow World Cup finalists Senegal in the semi-finals.

Many fans in soccer-mad Nigeria expected the government to appoint a foreign coach after sacking Amodu.

Nigeria's soccer ambassador John Fashanu said former manager of Chelsea and Newcastle in the English premier league, Ruud Gullit, should be appointed as Nigeria's new coach.

Fashanu told BBC Radio on Monday that he believes Gullit would be the ideal choice to lead the Super Eagles to the World Cup finals.

A German newspaper BZ reported on Tuesday that former Hertha Berlin coach, Juergen Roeber had been targeted to lead Nigeria's World Cup campaign.

Nigeria are drawn in the so-called 'group of death' at the World Cup along with Argentina, England and Sweden.

CAPABLE MAN

'Onigbinde is a very capable man,' former NFA vice chairman Tony Nnachetta told Reuters. 'But the problem of soccer in Nigeria is not who should coach the team. The problems revolve more around funding, professionalism, development and competition.'

Onigbinde led the Super Eagles to the 1984 African Nations Cup final in Ivory Coast and Trinidad and Tobago in the late 1990s before leaving after disagreements over money.

He first came to prominence in 1984 when he took provincial side Shooting Stars FC of Ibadan to the final of the then Sekou Toure Cup (now CAF champions League).

Onigbinde, a member of the CAF technical crew, is widely travelled, mostly as a FIFA instructor in the Caribbean where he was national coach for Trinidad and Tobago and around Africa.