Right now, parts of Nigeria's women's national team are preparing for the upcoming Olympic qualifying match against the Ivory Coast. But you do it without Thomas Dennerby.
Instead, the Swedish Confederation is at home in Sweden.
According to Nigerian newspaper Vanguard, this is rooted in problematic working conditions where officials from the national football association, NFF, have joined Dennerby's work.
The union's own description is that these are "technical details on how to manage a national team". What exactly technical details mean in this case he chooses not to go into.
Can leave completely
- Right now my lawyer is talking to the union. Then we get to see what happens, says Dennerby, who himself has chosen to stay out of dialogue with the union.
TT: What does it take for you to come back to Nigeria?
- It is impossible to answer actually. We'll see what happens in the next few days, he says.
TT: Is there any risk of you leaving altogether?
- Yes, you can say that it does, he says.
Contract over the Olympics
Thomas Dennerby and his Swedish leadership team, with, among others, the assistant captain, Jörgen Petersson, have contracts over the 2020 Olympics. During the football World Cup this summer he said the following about a continuation in the fall:
- I will meet with the board and we will sit down and discuss. The first indications are that they absolutely want me to continue. For me, it's a wonderful team to work with, it's fantastic players. But there are some known shortcomings on the more administrative level.
The women's team has previously been in conflict with the union. Among other things during the soccer World Cup, where Nigeria reached the eighth finals against Germany. Then several players refused to leave the player hotel because of missing bonuses from the union.