NFF, Keshi war continues

Hopes of the conflict between Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi and his employers Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) ending soon were dashed on Monday when the Federation through its Assistant Director on Media, Ademola Olajire unleashed another war of words on the former Mali coach.

A bitter Olajire, while fielding series of questions for several minutes on a radio sports programme monitored by our correspondent on Monday, once again slammed Keshi for the ‘disrespectful’ resignation of his appointment in far away South Africa.

Olajire noted that it was disrespectful to President Goodluck Jonathan, NFF president Aminu Maigari and even a shame to the former Mali tactician to resort to broadcasting his resignation of appointment on a live show in a foreign land.

“It (Keshi’s resignation) was very shocking. From my end and that of the NFF, I think it was disrespectful. It was disrespectful to the President of NFF his employers, President of the Federation that was waiting to honour the players and the coach. It was disrespectful that he chose to do so on foreign soil when he could have sat down to settle whatever the issues were if there was indeed any.

“The Sports Minister was there and he could have approached him. He could also have gone to the NFF President too, who is a complete gentleman. It was a meeting with the Minister that eventually resolved the matter. He just succeeded in ridiculing himself. His actions were very unnecessary, disrespectful and very overboard.”

Olajire also denied that the NFF board members put undue pressure on Keshi in South Africa or failed to pay him his salary. The famous after-match meeting that annoyed Keshi in Nelspruit, he said was actually nothing but a small gathering at which the coach was asked to explain his plans for the team giving the tight angle it was in after facing Zambia.

“This meeting that was misconstrued took place after the Zambia match which ended 1-1 and that meant we had just 2 points from two matches and it was not too glorious. And everybody was wondering whether we would leave the competition in the group phase for the first since 1982 and only for the third time ever.

“And we were not looking forward to logging in that kind of terrible record. What we went for was to win the Nations Cup and there were questions asked but it never amounted to a sack or the hiring of a foreign technical handler. There was nothing like that. But we have always talked about hiring a foreign technical advisor whose job it is to scout and develop structures for the national teams, not just the Super Eagles,” Olajire said. “The talk of NFF getting a technical adviser superior to Keshi is balderdash.”

“We have paid Keshi up to the end of January. We paid him even before the Nations Cup began. All the coaches got their money. We do not owe any of the coaches. We paid all the coaches till the end of January which is what any organization would have done. I think that was all right. If we were looking to sack anybody, we would have been holding something back but we did not. We were interested in sacking anybody but in winning the Nations Cup.”

Olajire also denied that the NFF bought the team’s flight tickets before the Cote d’Ivoire match.

“We have no business with flight tickets. If you talk of match tickets that we distribute to everybody, yes but not match tickets. Flight tickets are for CAF, organizers of the competition. The team secretary got a letter from CAF that we had two passages, we were either going back home (which is reality) or we were going to the next venue. There are no sentiments there. CAF only talks to you when you are into the knockout stage and nothing less. That was the letter the team secretary got. It had nothing to do with the NFF.”