Former Super Eagles coach faces disturbing allegation of AFCON hotel misdeeds

A former Super Eagles head coach may be set to face an ugly chapter in his hitherto enviable career working on the continent 

Former Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has found his reputation placed under an uncomfortable spotlight following the resurfacing of a disturbing allegation linked to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon, Soccernet.ng reports.

The 71-year-old German, who recently saw his Benin Republic side eliminated from the 2025 AFCON, is now the subject of renewed public scrutiny.

This comes after French journalist Romain Molina published a video, as per Football365, recounting an incident that, until now, had remained unknown to the wider public.

Gernot Rohr’s career on the continent has been long and influential. He has coached Gabon, Niger, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Benin. The Franco-German tactician remains the man who guided the Super Eagles to qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and to a bronze medal at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. His five-year spell in charge of Nigeria between 2016 and 2021 remains the longest in the national team’s history.

But that legacy is now being complicated by an account that Molina says dates back to January 2017, when Rohr was working as a television pundit for beIN Sports during the AFCON tournament in Gabon.

The Super Eagles did not qualify for the 2017 AFCON, allowing Rohr, who was head coach at the time, to take up the punditry job.

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The allegation against ex-Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr

According to Molina’s account, Rohr was staying in an accommodation run by a priest who also hosted members of the beIN Sports production team. The priest is said to have reported seeing Rohr ‘wearing only white briefs' and bringing ‘two very young girls' into his room.

Molina claims the matter was reported internally and that beIN Sports management confronted Rohr. He alleges that Rohr’s explanations changed several times; first suggesting the girls were “thirsty,” then that they were there for an “autograph”, before finally saying that he “knew” them.

The priest, according to Molina, stood by his account and the story was allegedly believed by those present. The broadcaster is said to have responded by withdrawing Rohr’s accreditation and ending his involvement in the tournament’s coverage. No legal action followed, and the matter was never made public.

Molina stresses that, from a legal point of view, “nothing ever happened” and that his account is based on testimonies he says he gathered during a long investigation. He also claims that a culture of silence allowed the issue to be quietly buried at the time.

What is clear is that Rohr did not return to television punditry after that tournament.

Rohr has not responded publicly to the allegations, and there has been no official statement from beIN Sports. As things stand, these remain unproven claims, strongly denied by no one but also not tested in court.

Still, their re-emergence comes at a delicate moment for a coach who, this month, guided Benin Republic to the last-16 stage of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.