SPORTS:
One official of the senior national team called on arrival from Peru
to say the following: ‘’Stephen Keshi and his coaches are not happy that
Keshi is not being given a free hand to do his work.
The problem may escalate and jeopardise our chances of qualifying for the World Cup and the Nations Cup.”
The official said that a top member of the federation had reduced the
list of players for three matches from 28 to 23 because Keshi did not
invite one particular player the NFF member recommended.
Nigeria will play Namibia in Calabar on Sunday, travel to Malawi for
2014 World Cup qualifiers and return to play Rwanda in a Nations Cup
second leg qualifier.
‘’For them to reduce the number of players for three matches from 28
to 23 doesn’t mean well for the team because it will limit their
options,” said the official, adding ‘’but the NFF board member told
Keshi he could invite as many players as he wanted so far he invites the
particular player in question.”
Another official confirmed this and said the NFF member had actually
been campaigning for two players(names withheld) but this time
particularised on one player insisting that he must be invited to the
national team.
He, however, said that Keshi has gone to increase the team to 27 players and may open up if his request was not granted.
Asked if the player in question was not good enough for Eagles the
official said that the player had been listed by Keshi as among the
players he would try out later and noted that ‘’Keshi has scheduled
different players for different matches and will from time to time
invite different players in the process of building a team.”
We called Keshi to confirm the alarm two non technical officials
raised he bluntly said that he would prefer to concentrate on the
Calabar assignment for now.
The officials said that NFF President Aminu Maigari and
Secretary-General Musa Amadu were not aware of this problem which from
the way the officials sounded was serious and really hurting Keshi and
his crew.
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