Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi, in collaboration with his employers the Nigeria Football Federation, has responded to the query the world football governing body, FIFA issued him. The query is over his alleged racist remark targeted at Malawi technical adviser Tom Sainfiet.

The Nigeria coach was given a September 16 deadline to respond to the query.

The General Secretary of the NFF Musa Amadu who spoke with The PUNCH on Tuesday confirmed that the response to FIFA’s Zurich headquarters was dispatched on Monday deadline.

He said, “Yes, we met the deadline. The response was sent by email and fax. And today (Tuesday) we are sending the hard copy by courier service.”

Amadu said he was positive that FIFA would understand the background under which the statement was made.

“We’ve explained the circumstances under which the statement was made; it was under normal pre-match antics we see of different coaches.

“Of course we all know that Keshi is somebody who has cross-cultural background and incidentally played his professional football career in Belgium where Saintfiet comes from. He was never involved in any racist row all through his career as a player. His intentions were pure and not the way it appears; they were merely based on football relations.”

The Malawi federation reported to FIFA what it called ‘racist’ remarks by Keshi aimed at the Belgian.

“We feel the racist remarks by Mr Keshi are not acceptable,” FAM’s general secretary Suzgo Nyirenda said after their federation sent official complaint to Zurich.

“We thought it was a personal attack on our coach and we had to defend him regardless of skin. We felt we should help our coach and at the same time put a stop to the racist remarks from Mr Keshi. We have sent evidence of what Keshi said and we hope FIFA will come up with some measures to control Mr Keshi.”

In the phone interview aired on UK-based African television show, Keshi was quoted to have said, “I think the coach of Malawi is crazy. If he wants to talk to FIFA, he should go back to Belgium. He is not an African person, he is a white dude, he should go back to Belgium.”

It is not yet clear what type of sanction may be handed Keshi if found culpable. Active players are usually suspended from a number of matches and fined as well while teams are made to play their games in empty stadiums if their fans are guilty of racist acts. In recent times acts of racism have been rampart in the Italian league while the separate cases involving Luis Suarez and former England captain John Terry made the headlines in English football.

FIFA and other regional football governing bodies have stepped hard against racism in response.

www.punchng.com/sports/racism-allegation-keshi-answers-fifa-query/

Mtcheeew!!!!! Kip geting problems with every body keshi ur ego go soon write u check wen ur body nor fit ever ever cash

noted

first to comment. kudos to keshi

K

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Keshi was rong but d malawi's coach was ronger

Story Story =======Story,grabs ma popcorn, waiting jejely for the next post

I did not see any 'Racist' remark on the comment above .
Let's wait and see the outcome .

I hope he is sanctioned.

He doesn't belong to the 21st century.....village man!

oladapo_a1:
In the phone interview aired on UK-based African television show, Keshi was quoted to have said, “I think the coach of Malawi is crazy. If he wants to talk to FIFA, he should go back to Belgium. He is not an African person, he is a white dude, he should go back to Belgium.”

Is this a racist remark except for using the word CRAZY

Let's be honest Keshi error big time...

Not too good...

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I cant blived dat i jst said END TIME TINZ sha

Even if fifa ban keshi we will still qualify for the world cup so no big deal

They just wanna get rid of our Keshi *crying*

Make FIFA park well abeg, go settle places lyk russia where real racism dey

Well this doesn't look good for the NFF and keshi, FIFA sure will want tomake an example of keshi since e really did utter those words, I can only hope the penalty doesn't make Amokachi grace the manager stand at the 2014 world cup in brazil.

Whats the criteria for a thread making FP anyway, just curious.

sambroose: Story Story =======Story,grabs ma popcorn, waiting jejely for the next post

eating popcorn this early morning, are from chad?

Who

Clears troat, uses a hankey to clean his lips and in my deep baritone voice, i declare, - mr keshi's remarks was ill- understood by mr saintfiet so mr keshi is declard innocent

Inasmuch as I don't condole racism remarks, I don't see anything that portrays racism in Keshi's remark. Besides, the worst hit by racism are majorly black players. I think Black players and now Keshi are beginning to rise to the occasion. If FIFA will sanction Keshi, It is okay but I just hope the penalty will not be too heavy so as not to affect the World Cup playoffs.

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I respect coach keshi for that respond. It is high time we the nigerian should start to appreciat our country.Do you know the magnitude of the comment the malawian coach made by saying that calabar is not safe.He was trying to tell the world that Nigeria as a whole is not safe. Not everybody can just stand up and talk nonsense against about Nigeria and expect us to keep quite.Keshi just showed the world that Nigeria and Africa as a whole is no longer the puppet of the white dudes.
Team Keshi.
Brasil 2014 here we come.

In as much as d statement is nt smtin required frm a coach, i Can't really find any racist remark on d statement. Nyways keshi is nt just a coach, he is a role model, xo he needs 2 watch wat he says or does out der.

"He is not an African person, he is a white dude, he should go back to Belgium.”

We should not even argue about this, they are racist remarks. Imagine if it were a Nigerian on the receiving end. It would go llike this:

"He is not a European person, he is a black dude, he should go back to Nigeria"

This the first time i hear a black make racist statement to a white.

Thats good. Let blacks continue abusing whites racially so white wil learn a lesson

Jayeris: "He is not an African person, he is a white dude, he should go back to Belgium.”

We should not even argue about this, they are racist remarks. Imagine if it were a Nigerian on the receiving end. It would go llike this:

"He is not a European person, he is a black dude, he should go back to Nigeria"

You are right