A former member of the NFF disciplinary committee, Barr Iyke Igbokwe has alleged that the Amaju Pinnick-led board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) sabotaged Super Eagles, qualification for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations to scandalise Stephen Keshi as a bad coach. Igbokwe stated this while interacting with newsmen yesterday in Abuja.
He said the Pinnick-led NFF abandoned the team during the rundown to last Wednesday’s crucial qualifying match with South Africa in Uyo to just ensure that Keshi did not succeed.
Nigeria, African champions finished at a disappointing third position in their Group A of the Nations Cup qualifier on eight points following a 2-2 draw against South Africa on Wednesday night at the Akwa Ibom International Stadium, Uyo.
“During the rundown to the match in Uyo, no member of the NFF board went near the team to find how they were feeling. This is the first time this kind of thing is happening that a Nigerian national team will come for a match, stay for two to three days in the rundown to the match and no member of the NFF, a body that is organising them goes near them to ask them how were they feeling.
“That shows that the plan has been laid down right from the word go that the team was not supported to do well.
“I don’t want to talk about other things; but we know that right from time, there has been animosity over Keshi by the NFF board and it didn’t start today. We knew what happened in the rundown to that match that Keshi was sacked by the NFF board and the president in his wisdom did the right thing for Nigeria by telling the NFF to consider bringing him back.
“The Presidency did what was right for Nigeria’s football because Stephen Keshi has started the qualifier and if you sack him with just two matches to go and the man you are bringing in fails to qualify them, the man already has excuses to say that he did not start the qualifying process. Likewise, Keshi also will say that he was not allowed to finishing his job. So why not allow the man who started the job to finish it?” he asked.
He said the Super Eagles’ 2-2 draw with South Africa on Wednesday was as a result of the love-lost between Keshi and the NFF board.
“We know that there has been no love-lost between NFF board and Keshi. That animosity played out during the match in Uyo. The South African team has nothing to play for because they had already qualified before they came for the match.
“So, the moral of the boys were so low that even in the match in Congo, their daily allowances were not paid them whereas NFF chattered an aircraft to take 100 men to Congo for sightseeing. I don’t think chattering an aircraft to take 100-journey-men while the players and coaches who sweat on pitch are yet to get money is the proper management of football.
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