WHY WE PICKED KESHI – NFF

By NBF News

Keshi
In spite of the spirited and repeated denials by the chairman of Technical Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Barrister Christopher Green, that the federation has not picked a new coach for the Super Eagles, members of the executive board have zeroed in on Stephen Keshi as the favoured candidate for the job.

Disclosing this to Daily Sunsports, a member of the board, who does not want his name in print, said that what informed the board's decision was the fact that since the Hawks of Togo's former handler contested the position with sacked Siasia, it has decided against inviting fresh applications from other coaches.

He further noted that though the board will ratify Keshi on Wednesday as Eagles head coach, there were strong indications that it would be on acting bases, revealing that the board was looking into the option of hiring a foreign coach for the Eagles.

'Well, Keshi is the likely person to replace Siasia. His choice was based on the simple fact that he attended the interview with Siasia. We want to avoid inviting fresh applications from other coaches. We just want somebody to start working on acting capacity until we finally resolve on the possibility of hiring a foreign coach. For now, we have settled for Keshi,' our source noted. Asked why the board sacrificed Siasia despite divided opinions of Nigerians to his favour, the board member noted that his greatest undoing was his arrogance to the technical committee members and most especially the clause in his contract.

Admitting that the board was harsh in inserting such draconian clause in Siasia's contract, he, however, blamed Siasia for not appealing for the removal of the clause, stressing that the desperation for the job could beclouded his meticulous and detailed scrutiny of the contract document.'The reports and recommendations of the technical committee were very unfavourable. They said that Siasia was very arrogant. He talks down on all members of the committee and that was why they were unanimous in recommending his sack.

'He specifically gave example of an incident when the technical committee wanted him to remove injured Chibuzor Okonkwo since he has not being playing for Heartland FC, but he refused. During the match against Guinea, it was obvious Siasia was biased and sentimental in his selections. He fielded his boys,' he noted.

On conditions that would have saved Siasia from sack, the board member said: 'I can tell you the general feelings of most members was that if Siasia had resigned immediately after the match, he would have been retained, but his over confidence was his greatest undoing.'