Ganduje approves appointment of French Coach, Soccoia for Pillars FC

The Governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has approved the appointment of French coach, Lionel Emmanuel Soccoia for the state owned football club, Kano Pillars.

The French tactician is expected to lead the club's technical crew in next year's CAF Confederation Cup.

His appointment is necessitated by the directive from CAF that only coaches with CAF 'A' licence or its equivalent will head the technical crew of clubs in its elite competitions.

The rule had effectively disqualified Pillars present technical adviser, Ibrahim Musa who holds CAF 'C' and 'B' licence.

Before now, Pillars had made contact with former Golden Eaglets and Flying Eagles coach, Manu Garba for the plum job.

The chairman of the club, Alhaji Surajo Shaaibu Yahaya said the former Black Leopards of South Africa coach who is already in the country will arrive

Kano on Wednesday, October 21 for the signing of the contract papers.

“We have concluded everything with him and immediately he arrives Kano tomorrow (today) he is going to sign the one year contract agreement.

“He will not tamper with appointments of the existing technical crew members but there will be some adjustments,” he said.

The Media Officer of Pillars, Alhaji Rilwanu Idris Malikawa also said the incoming technical adviser will be unveiled on Thursday and resume same day during the morning training session.

Soccoia who holds UEFA ‘A’ licence has handled clubs in other African countries like Cameroon, South Africa, Congo DR, Tanzania and Zambia.

The coach whose preferred formation is 4-4-2 has managed prominent African clubs like Cotonsport in Cameroon, African Lyon of Tanzania and lately Black Leopards of South Africa where he was sacked in July 2019.