The subtle battle between Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi and his employers, the Nigeria Football Federation may blow into a full scale war when the absentee coach returns from his trip to Carlifonia, USA.
On return, Keshi is bound to meet a charged atmosphere which has been incensed by his alleged absence from the April 10 technical committee meeting in which he was expected to discuss Eagles’ busy schedule in May, June and July.
Coach of the Nigerian football team Stephen Keshi AFP PHOTO
To start with, sources at the Glass House hinted that the NFF will issue Keshi, a query for failing to attend Wednesday’s technical and development committee meeting in Abuja.
But Keshi, 51, left for California in the United States of America (USA) to see his family, leaving executive members of the federation furious.
Chairman of the NFF Media and Publicity Committee, Emeka Inyama, told journalists in Abuja that Keshi will have to explain to his employers why he was absent from the meeting with the federation’s technical and development committee.
“The federation officially invited Keshi to discuss with the technical committee on some salient issues affecting the team. These include his recent issues with captain of the team, Joseph Yobo as well as Osaze Odemwingie.
Also, the technical committee wants to know his programmes for the (Fifa) Confederations Cup and the World Cup qualifiers. But he didn’t show up.
“Yet we know he was in Lagos to take delivery of the cars given to him by Chief Mike Adenuga before leaving the country. Yes he had booked his flight to leave the country but I’m also a regular traveller and I don’t think spending $120 (about N19,000) to reschedule his flight would be too much.
“The federation will be demanding a lot of explanation from him because this is serious business and a national business too,” said Inyama.
Keshi guided Nigeria to win the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa in February this year but fell out with the federation even before the final.
Keshi raged because he found out how he would have been sacked if he failed. His actions and comments painted the federation in bad light and nobody gave the federation any credit for the success in South Africa.
The African champions will start off their busy schedule with an international friendly with Mexico in Houston on May 31 before making trips to Kenya and Namibia in June for the 2014 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.
Nigeria’s Super Eagles are drawn in Group B with Tahiti, Uruguay and world champions, Spain.
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