The recent saga between the Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, and Head Coach of the Super Eagles, Stephen Keshi has been bemoaned for the way it smacks of what some have termed witch hunting.

Keshi has barely enjoyed a peaceful relationship with the NFF due to one issue or the other since he returned. So many question marks have hung over his job and the doubts have increased incredibly.

The witch hunting began after the NFF delayed a new deal for the Big Boss, leaving him to wait for months without knowing what direction to go.

After he was offered a new deal, some stringent clauses were contained in his new deal.

He was presented with a 27 clauses and offered 5million, barred from talking to the press about issues of his salary or his employers. It was insisted his statements on the team go through the image maker of the NFF.

To frustrate him more, he was also denied the ability to accept gifts from corporate bodies, individuals or State Governments without the knowledge of the NFF.

Again, Keshi was accused of including a non-league player, Okechukwu Gabriel in the squad that played against Chad on Saturday in the 2017 AFCON qualifier in Kaduna.

After being criticized, he was issued a query and denied the liberty of selecting players for matches without the knowledge of the former Eagles Coach, Shaibu Amodu and the technical committee.

The NFF stressed that Amodu would be held responsible for the failure of the team. Indirectly he is in charge and not Keshi, against the usual practice in other advanced countries.

On another faithful day, reports that Keshi applied for the managerial job of the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire put him in the crosshairs of the public despite his denial.

“I will appear before the committee to explain and there is no way it will deter me from serving my country or doing my job,’’ shouldn’t Keshi’s comments be enough?

The NFF spent a whopping sum of $8,000 approximately N1.6 million going to Ivory Coast to investigate the reports when they could actually put a phone call across to the Ivorian FA and get all the information needed.

To Read More, Click: http://www.post-nigeria.com/cold-war-is-the-nff-witch-hunting-keshi/

World class coaches like Pep Guardiola, Vicente del Bosque, Mourinho, and the like were linked to the Nigerian job (laughably so) during the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa but had no problem with their employers.

These rules seem to be a ploy to hunt players and coaches instead of giving guidance and technical expertise, given by the recent incidents involving the team captain Vincent Enyeama and the embarrassing performances of the national teams across board, especially in the technical areas of the game.

Playing politics with everything in a football power house like Nigeria is obviously not a healthy trend for us. NFF should be concerned with better things and not chasing shadows like they are doing now.

Prozone, arguably the world’s most popular opposition scouting and post-match analysis platform, has not been perceived as a bigger tool by the NFF to enhance and improve the quality of the game. Instead, they seriously engage unserious issues seriously.

Nigerian football cannot continue in this painful drama with the image of Nigerian football at stake having missed out of the last Nations Cup tournament.

The NFF must come back down to earth to resolve the unending drama and witch hunting of coaches and players.

What is worth doing is worth doing well. If Keshi must be the coach, he must be allowed to work under the right conditions.

To Read More, Click: http://www.post-nigeria.com/cold-war-is-the-nff-witch-hunting-keshi/

Ok

he no intergrity