The new president of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has said that the decision of the NFF to sack Stephen Keshi and his team was in the interest of Nigerians.
Former Coach, Keshi had been widely criticised for the poor performance of the national team in the qualifying games for the African Nations cup. However, following a 3-1 home win against Sudan on Wednesday and a hostile attitude towards the coach, the NFF executive committee, on Thursday, released a statement, announcing the sack of the coach.
“We did that because we saw a lot of things that had happened in the past, there were issues that bothered about security, from the beginning of the game, we saw that a hero in Keshi was booed from the beginning of the match.
The NFF President also stated that security agents had to interfere because at the end of the match people were running to the pitch.
“We took all this decision to save him and let him know that he’s a hero and should remain a hero.”
Speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise, Mr. Pinnick mentioned that the last NFF administration had concluded on signing Amodu Shuaibu as the Technical Director of the football federation and he is just to manage the remaining two matches.
He also suggested that the former coach and his administration could go for a refresher courses anywhere which would be sponsored by the NFF, adding that in the future this would help him if he decides to come back as Eagles coach.
Mr. Pinnick apologised to the fans for the steps taken, “It is not a decision that is primordial based or playing to the gallery but looking at documentations as it relates to the way forward.”
Mr. Pinnick also noted that Keshi would be paid all outstanding entitlement within two weeks. He debunked the reports making the rounds that the Super Eagles players played for Keshi and not Nigeria.
