The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations will be odd in a certain way when the 16 teams on parade will battle for the coveted trophy without the reigning champions in the mix. It will not be the first time the Super Eagles will fail to seize the opportunity to defend the title following the 1996 ban when Nigeria refused to play in South Africa, but it is the first a Nigerian coach would get to keep his job after such major failure.

The decision of the Nigeria Football Federation to keep Keshi has attracted criticisms to the football body from various quarters. The decision has gradually built up controversy, especially when observers point out that it was the same NFF that refused to offer the coach a new contract as it planned to hire a foreign coach, with two games left in the qualifying series.

The decision to relieve Keshi of his position was reached after the team lost 1-0 to Sudan in Khartoum on October 11. Even after a 3-1 win in the return leg fixture against Sudan in Abuja four days later, the NFF still went ahead with their decision, temporarily replacing Keshi with Shaibu Amodu.

The plan was to hire a foreign coach but the football body was forced to change its plan when President Goodluck Jonathan impressed it upon the officials to rescind their decisions.

After the ultimate failure of not qualifying for the 2015 AFCON, however, some NFF officials have allegedly appealed secretly to sympathisers to plead with Keshi to resign. According to sources, these officials would want Keshi to take a walk instead of the NFF making the decision and incurring the wrath of the Presidency.

Even the Chairman of Senate Committee on Sports, Adamu Gumba, tacitly warned against the sacking of the coach, saying that the team would need rebuilding.

In toeing the same line as the government, NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, made a U-turn on his belief in Keshi and absolved him of blame while identifying the players as the problem.

“Look at the attitude of the players. A coach can tell the players ‘look at the tactics we want’, and they go there and do their thing,” Pinnick said on Cool FM.

He added later on SL10.ng, “We have Shaibu Amodu as the technical director, he was boss to Keshi. Keshi is the head coach, he has won everything and he is still going to work. ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha is the head of the technical study group and Felix Anyansi-Agwu, one of the most successful club administrators in the country today, is the head of the technical committee. With these people, I don’t think you can go wrong.”

A 1980 Nations Cup winner, Adokiye Amiesimaka, hailed the decision to retain Keshi, but questioned the motive behind the initial quest to hire a foreign coach.

“Keshi has done well as a coach. We should give the coaching crew more credit instead of criticising them,” Amiesimaka said.

“At their first attempt, they won us the Nations Cup, and at the first attempt, qualified us for the World Cup.

“We’re not even saying thank you to them, everybody is just saying ‘fire them fire them’, and we know the running battles Keshi has had with these so-called football governing body in this country.”

But not everyone agrees with the NFF and Amiesimaka on Keshi. A former international, Oladimeji Lawal, and former striker Jonathan Akpoborie insist that Keshi should be judged based on his last result.

“His last result in this case is the failure to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations,” Lawal said.

“Nobody should tell Keshi or the NFF what to do. I’m not in the position to advise the NFF so I can’t tell them what to do, but they should know that his job is to win matches and qualify Nigeria for competitions. If that can’t be achieved, I don’t know what else they want him for.”

Akpoborie rather called for the hiring of a foreign coach, arguing that foreigners always have straightforwardness in their selection of players and possess superior tactical knowledge.

“NFF must bring a foreign coach with class, a top quality coach, a big name and established coach who has knowledge of African football and who is ready to develop the game in the country,” the former Wolfburg forward said.

“The coach must be one who has a culture. Switzerland, Germany, Holland and Spain have football culture and that’s why they play well,” he argued.

“I also don’t agree with people who say Nigeria don’t have quality players. We have them in abundance home and abroad, they only need to be harnessed.”

A former Nigeria captain, Sunday Oliseh, said on his blog that the Super Eagles failed to qualify because the team were uncoordinated, blaming the coach and the NFF in the process.

“It is a crime to air your opinion, give advice or suggestions on how to better the Super Eagles without the handlers throwing insults at you or crying out that you seek their job,” Oliseh said.

“They probably do this because they got the job through backstabbing, hence they fail to understand that not everyone needs or wants to coach the Super Eagles.

“When you lack ‘raw’ quality in your team, you advocate and build success via team work, team play and a regular team to compensate for what you lack in individual quality.

“The uncoordinated way in which the Super Eagles play, which triggered our recent elimination (from the AFCON qualifiers), is borne out of the fact that there was too much line-up changes. Not only does the team not play well or succeed, it is ‘foreign’ and unknown to Nigerians.”

“The FA’s technical committee is comical to say the least. It fails to understand what its job should be in the first place. I find it inappropriate for a national coach (no matter who he is) to be asked to justify his team selection to people who have no technical education and have never played at the highest level but believe they just have a gifted knowledge of football from just watching or having played it on the street or in school.”

He added, “Most of us played football as kids; we all have opinions or ideas about football. This, however, leads some to think they are experts. This is not only wrong, but dangerous.

“Should you want to be a top coach, you have to study and get yourself certified and even then you are not guaranteed success.

“Spain’s Football Federation recently banned Real Madrid’s second-team coach, Zinedine Zidane, from coaching because he doesn’t have the right qualifications.

“If they can ban such a legend from coaching the second division, why should we hand over our national teams and first division clubs to people who just attend two-week seminars and pretend to be qualified?”

The Super Eagles will not get down to serious business until late 2015 when they are expected to begin their campaign for the 2017 AFCON. Before then, they are expected to play Brazil and Croatia in some of the friendly games lined up for them.


http://brainnewsng.com/keshi-remains-untouchable-despite-eagles-woes/