NFF Tech Committee recommends Keshi

Stephen Keshi

The Technical Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation has recommended Stephen Keshi to the board of the federation for contract renewal as the Super Eagles coach. The committee met in Abuja on Tuesday to deliberate on the matter of substantive coach for the Eagles amongst other issues.

The Chairman of the committee, Felix Anyasi-Agwu, who spoke with reporters shortly after the meeting, said that a national coach will be appointed before the FIFA international window of March 24.

He also confirmed that the body considered only Keshi for the position because he was the only person who applied for the job. The NFF had thrown the position open soon after the World Cup at the expiration of Keshi’s contract but were forced to change their position as a result of pressure from highly placed government officials. No other advertisement for the job was placed again afterwards.

Anyasi-Agwu said, “The issue of Keshi’s contract had been discussed and it is left for the board to take a decision on it. There is nothing wrong with Keshi returning to the national post. He is the only person that was considered for the national job.”

Keshi lost his place with the national team after the Eagles failed to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, which ended in Equatorial Guinea on Sunday with Ivory Coast as the new champions. Eagles were the defending champions having won the Cup in 2013 under Keshi in South Africa.

He was contracted by the sports minister Dr. Tammy Danagogo on a short-term deal from September last year to supervise six qualifying matches leading to the AFCON 2015, after his contract expired at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. He got the boot midway from the new NFF board led by Amaju Pinnick, as the national team wobbled against less-fancied teams. But in a dramatic move, his replacement Shaibu Amodu withdrew his acceptance of the temporary job. Since then the Eagles have stayed without any substantive coach.

Keshi’s assistant Daniel Amokachi has acted as the head coach leading the Eagles in a few international friendlies.

There were speculations that Keshi would know his fate after the country’s general elections which were scheduled for February 14 and 28 but a change of dates for the elections may have changed a lot of the calculations. It was not very clear yesterday when the Executive Committee of the federation would meet to consider the recommendation of the technical committee.