Nairaland Forum

This is why our football will never move forward. Why don't they give Keshi free hand .




Cold war is brewing between the national team Head Coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, and the Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) Technical Committee headed by Barr Chris Green over the list of players released for the last friendly international against Peru.

Daily Sunsports can authoritatively reveal that the romance between the coach and the technical committee went sour when the coach released his list of invited foreign-based professionals for the Peru invitational to the media without the knowledge of the Technical Committee. A member of the Committee was reported to have quickly sent an e-mail to his colleagues, pointing out the irregalarity, wondering why the Press will get a list of the invitees Thurdsay and the Technical Committee Friday.

He said it should be noted that it was the same type of pride that preceded Siasia’s fall. When a coach believes he is all knowing and refuses to share his thoughts with his colleagues, it could be counterproductive.

“If he had shared that list with us, we would have pointed out to him that Yobo was injured, and saved him the embarrassment. As it stands, we cannot even face the Press to explain why certain players were on his list because he did not care to inform or educate us,” the member complained. The Chairman of the Committee, Chris Green, who was away in Ghana said that he was equally taken unaware, adding that he would address the issue when he returns home. Members of the committee were also told to endeavour to stay awake to watch the Peru invitational broadcast by 2a.m Nigeria time to share ideas. They were, however, not happy over the issue.

One of them said “ …I regret staying awake to watch that rubbish. I thought that match was to prepare us for the World Cup qualifier against Namibia and Malawi. If not, when are we going to see the squad that we will use for the three important matches in June?” Asked whether the committee was no more committed to the gospel of raising a formidable home-based team, the member replied … “ Far from it. In building a team, we have to pursue a gradual and careful plan of elimination by substitution. I am sure millions of Nigerians will agree that we are yet at a stage, where we can say we have discovered 11 home-based players to face the world.

“ In the second half of that match, you could see that when even the fringe foreign-based players he invited came in, the match took a turn for the better. We have good players out there, we are in a position of dialoguing with him on them, while the responsibility of accepting our views or not, lies solely with him”. When some members of the Technical Committee met in an ad-hoc capacity in Abuja last week, some of them blamed the chairman for the unbridled freedom given to Keshi akin to that of Siasia era. “ When we recommended Sisaia for sack, we did say that we gave him too much autonomy and did not interfere in his duties, but that in the case of Stephen Keshi, we will be interested in everything he does and will be ready to ask questions along the line. How come we have allowed him to invite players at will without input from the committee?”

The members noted that the NFF Statutes that set up the Technical Committee, it is the responsibility of the coach to explain the reasons for inviting certain players and leaving out others as well as the strategy he intends to adopt in winning matches, yet it is on record that Coach Keshi has not submitted a single technical report of the matches he has played so far, making it impossible for the Committee to assess and evaluate him so far.

The Technical Committee has also resolved that with regard to Namibia and Malawi, victory scorelines of fewer than three will be unsatisfactory given all the moral and financial support that had been given to him since he assumed duty.

The Chairman of the Committee is even reported to have sent a memo to him in this regard just as some officials of the NFF believe that assistant coach, Daniel Amokachi, who is fighting a disciplinary battle of his own should be held responsible for the sudden arrogance on the technical bench of the Super Eagles.