THE new board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will on Wednesday decide the fate of Stephen Keshi as coach of the Super Eagles.
The new President of the Federation, Amaju Pinnick, told The Guardian yesterday that the board would meet on Wednesday in Abuja to deliberate on a number of issues, including whether or not to renew Keshi’s contract.
Keshi took over the Super Eagles’ job in 2011 after Samson Siasia failed to qualify the team for the 2012 African Nations Cup co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
The ‘Big Boss’ guided the team to the 2013 AFCON in South Africa, which Nigeria won. He also qualified the Eagles for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, where the team made it to the second round.
Before leading the Eagles to Brazil, Keshi had failed with the home-based Super Eagles in January this year at the 2014 CHAN competition in South Africa, where his squad lost to their West African rival, Ghana, in the semifinal.
The sad ouster of the Super Eagles from CHAN 2014 raised eyebrows in soccer circles regarding Keshi’s philosophy of scouting players in the domestic league amid an array of star players who are ignored.
His contract expired after the World Cup in Brazil, but Keshi was temporarily re-engaged by the Sports Minister, Tammy Danagogo, to oversee Nigeria’s 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) double-header against Congo and South Africa, pending when the NFF board finalised discussion on his contract.
Recently, for the first time in many decades, Keshi led the Super Eagles to a home defeat in the hands of Red Devils of Congo in Calabar, to put Nigeria’s qualification for the defence of the Nations Cup title at great risk. He could only manage a goalless draw with the Bafana Bafana in South Africa three days later.
The results mean the Eagles would have to win all other matches, including the two legs against Sudan this month to raise hope of qualification for the 2015 fiesta in Morocco.
But many Nigerians don’t see Keshi delivering the ticket based on the ‘hard stand’ he has taken concerning invitation of some players to the team. Keshi’s decision to ‘experiment’ with relatively unknown players in the next crucial game against Sudan seems to be giving many Nigerians a great concern.
Speaking with The Guardian yesterday, Pinnick said that the new NFF board would meet in Abuja on Wednesday to deliberate ‘extensively’ on issues concerning renewal of Keshi’s contract among other things.
“The only thing I can tell you now is that the board will meet on Wednesday in Abuja and the issue of Keshi is one of our agenda,” Pinnick said.
Pressed further to speak on the new board’s disposition on Keshi considering his achievement at the last Nations Cup in South Africa, Pinnick said: “It is not a matter of whether one likes Keshi or not. We have to look at a number of issues concerning the Super Eagles and Nigerian football in general. The board will have to decide.”
It would be recalled that ex-international, Emmanuel Babayaro, recently carpeted Keshi for his attitude to the national team, saying: “The average Nigerians, myself inclusive, are very sentimental people and football and sentiments don’t go together.
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