'We want Robson'

Hundreds of angry Nigerian football fans marched on a government building here Friday to protest a decision to drop plans to sign former England skipper Bryan Robson as national team coach.

Nigeria's sports minister this week pulled the plug on a 300,000-dollar, six month deal that would have seen the one-time Middlesbrough manager lead Nigeria's Super Eagles to next year's African Nations Cup.

In the football-mad northern city of Kano, supporters were outraged at the decision, and on Friday 200 of them marched on the headquarters of the state government to demand contract talks be revived.

"We, the football loving Nigerians are devastated by this outrageous decision," said Yakubu Musa, a spokesman for the placard wielding fans, who handed local officials a letter for President Olusegun Obasajo.

"It is common knowledge that we don't have a competent indigenous coach to face teams like Senegal and Cameroon, who have foreign coaches," he said.

Obasanjo's sports minister, Musa Mohammed, said Wednesday that Nigeria could not afford to pay for a high-profile figure like Robson to lead the Super Eagles into January's continental showdown in Tunisia.

The Nigeria Football Association complained about the decision - insisting it had found private sponsors to foot the former Manchester United midfielder's wage bill - but grudgingly accepted it.

But the supporters' were not so easily placated.

The Kano fans letter to Obasanjo said: "Football is about the only unifying factor which binds the over 300 tribes of Nigeria together.

"We remind Mr President that Nigerians would not forgive him and his administration if this chance of having a world class coach for a meagre sum is allowed to slip by," it continued.

"The minister - being a neophyte in sports administration - should be dropped before he does further damage to Nigerian football and sports in general," it said.

Nigeria's caretaker manager, Christian Chukwu, is now expected to lead the national squad into the tournament, despite struggling in the past to win world-beating performances from his well-paid international stars.