NFF Accuses Keshi of Degrading Eagles No 10 Jersey

Stephen Keshi 

One of the reasons that caused Stephen Keshi his Super Eagles job, three months after his reappointment, was that he allegedly mortified the iconic number 10 shirt which he handed to an unknown player, during Nigeria’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Chad in Kaduna on June 13.

The player in question is Gabriel Okechukwu, who plays for non-league club, Water Football Club of Abuja.

A disciplinary committee constituted by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), which investigated Keshi for applying for the vacant Ivory Coast job, in breach of his contract, determined that Keshi erred by smuggling Okechukwu into the national team without the knowledge of the Technical Committee and the Technical Study Group.

Keshi was sacked at the weekend by the NFF board for breaching the terms of his contract with the federation.

In his place, the Technical Director of  the NFF, Amodu Shaibu, was appointed in acting capacity to handle the team pending the appointment of a full time national coach.

The panel accused Keshi of hubris and sacrilege by gifting Okechukwu the iconic No 10 jersey, only for him to be left on the reserve bench during the match which Nigeria won 2-0 through goals by Gbolahan Salami and Odion Ighalo.  

           

They contended that Okechukwu did not yet have the pedigree to be coveted with the influential shirt globally popularised by Pele of Brazil, Maradona of Argentina, Zidane of France and Austin Jay Jay Okocha of Nigeria.

The panel said Keshi compromised the standard of the team in breach of Clause 5.8 of his contract of employment by not using his best available players and by pandering to a non-leaguer when there were better prospects in the local league and in club sides beyond the shores of country.

Strangely, before the controversial Okechukwu found his way into the national camp, he was considered poor by Flying Eagles coach Manu Garba for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup campaign. Manu left him out of the 30-man squad that trained in Germany before the tournament proper in New Zealand.

“From the facts given and evidence of the fact that Gabriel Okechukwu was invited from a non- league football club that only existed by name whereas there are a number of talented players who play in the leagues thereby compromising his position and failing in his duties in flagrant breach of Clause 5.8 of his contract of employment.

“He also did not consult and there is no evidence suggesting that he consulted with the Federation’s Technical Study Group in the selection of players invited to the Super Eagles in breach of Clause 5.4,” stated the disciplinary panel under heading “issue number 3” .
The panel also interpreted Keshi’s action to imply that Okechukwu was invited to the national team for personal interest or on the basis of ethnicity or religious lines which is a grave violation of the code of conduct for coaches in schedule 1 of the contract.

After claiming to have overwhelming evidence that Keshi applied for the Elephants job in breach of Clause 4.3 of his employment with NFF in addition to the Okechukwu saga, the panel recommended that Keshi’s contract be summarily terminated.

“During investigation it was discovered that an application together with the CV of Mr. Stephen Keshi were sent by his agent Hermann Brice De Souza to the panel set up by FIF to screen and recommend for appointment coach for the Les Elephants on 11th June, 2015.
It was also discovered that the said Hermann Brice De Souza did also write to withdraw the said application on 20th June, 2015 without any reason adduced for the withdrawal.

It is worthy to note that this withdrawal was made after the story had broken in Nigeria and has been queried verbally by the President of the NFF,” claimed the report of the Chris Green-led panel that investigated Keshi’s attempt to dump the Eagles job for Ivory Coast.