- Eagles coach queried for attending national team sponsor’s event
As exclusively reported by Nigerian Pilot Sports on Monday, the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has fired Super Eagles head coach, Stephen Keshi a query over gross acts of insubordination.
Keshi had attended a media parley organised by Tom Tom in Lagos on Tuesday, without getting express permission to do same from the NFF who equally scheduled a meeting with the Big Boss same day.
The Eagles gaffer was also accused of causing the NFF a huge embarrassment earlier in the year when despite being aware of a planned reception by President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja, opted to travel to the United States for holiday with his family.
The query letter, signed by Dr Emmanuel Ikpeme, Head of Technical in NFF, demanded Keshi’s response before the close of work yesterday.
Excerpts from the query read: “It is important we draw your attention to previous actions whereby you travelled out of Nigeria without NFF’s express permission.
It continued: “Specifically, you travelled out before Feb 13, 2014 the day President Jonathan received the CHAN team, causing us huge embarrassment.
“Your request for leave that was approved by the NFF was from Feb 15-March 10, 2014 but you left before Feb 13 and returned March 26”.
We have gathered that Super Eagles’ sponsors, Tom Tom, will also get a query for inviting Coach Keshi to the Editors’ Roundtable.
According to the source, “if we have our way, Keshi will be stopped from going to Brazil. We offered to bring him a foreign technical assistant but he stubbornly wanted Sylvanus Okpala that we had declared an enemy of the football house. We did it to Shaibu Amodu and appointed Onigbinde 72 days to the World Cup so why is Keshi’s own not possible?”
It would be recalled that Coach Stephen Keshi was assistant to coach Shaibu Amodu when their technical crew qualified the nation to the World Cup in the first instance but were stopped.
An online news portal, gongnews.com, also said there have been several plans to frustrate the coach to either resign or be made redundant in the processes towards the World Cup. For instance, one of the members of NFF from Rivers State, Christopher Green, is alleged to have been boasting to anyone who cares to listen that the new Sports Minister, Dr. Tamuno Danagogo, is his boy and they have him in control.
Five days after telling someone that “we will take him to Costa Rica where we will finish the job on him, the minister flew out of the country to watch the U-17 World Cup while his house is not in order with the crisis engulfing the Premier league as well as not telling the nation what is the policy direction of the administration.”
According to the source, the plan is to make the coach look rude and insubordinate first before the Nigerian public then, use the Minister of Sports to take the same message to Mr President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, who we know is Keshi’s number one fan.
Keshi’s leave was approved and rather than buy his ticket, he was left in the lurch. By the time the reception for the CHAN Eagles was to hold, he was already out of the country but the NFF now plans to make that event look like Keshi does not have respect for the President.
A foreign coach that would earn $215,000 is said to be in the wings. He was in the terraces during Nigeria’s friendly with Mexico in Atlanta. All that is needed is to wean Keshi off his contract anyhow it works.
It would be recalled that when Shaibu Amodu was sacked after qualifying Nigeria for the World Cup, the NFF brought in Lars Lagerback on $250,000 three-month contract during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Keshi is still being owed about eight month’s wages.
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