SUPER Eagles Coach Stephen Keshi may pretend not to know what is happening to him now, regarding his relationship with the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) He does not need to look beyond his shoulders to find answers to the strained relationship between him and the national football governing body.
According to reports there is a drastic pay cut for Coach Stephen Keshi in the new deal which has been prepared by the Amaju Pinnick-led NFF The new deal if agreed by Keshi will see him earn three million naira a month. That will represent a huge pay cut from the five million naira he earned in his first contract.
“The new contract which has been finalized by the Nigerian football Federation will see Keshi earn far less than he received in his first contract,” a top source disclosed.
“The federation is broke and they do not want to promise what they cannot pay.”
Initial media reports has suggested Keshi could get a pay rise and even seven million naira a month with the coach himself insisting he deserves to be paid a lot more.
Keshi’s initial three year contract ran out after he led the Super Eagles to the round of 16 at last year’s World cup in Brazil and he has since been working without a contract.
NFF President Amaju Pinnick told reporters he expects Keshi to resume work as Eagles Coach soon after he would have agreed to the new contract.
“We have concluded on the contract of Keshi and if he is fine with it, he would begin work,” declared Pinnick.
Meanwhile, Keshi has fired back at NFF boss Amaju Pinnick insisting the federation believes they are doing him a favour by appointing him to lead Nigeria again but he is ready to walk away.
There is no love lost between Keshi and NFF boss Pinnick and this was further underlined by the latest statements by the coach.
“The NFF thinks without Nigerian Football there is no other place to coach. This is a very wrong assumption,” fired Keshi.
“I love to coach Nigeria, but they think they are doing us a favour to appoint a Nigerian coach. But that is not true, if they don’t want us, we would go somewhere else and coach.”
According to Paul Bassey I feel pained that we are still talking about weather to hire or not it here Keshi. As for me, I’ve decided that the day they announce Keshi as Coach, I’ll relinquish and member of CAF and FIFA media committee said on our hotline.
Bassey said that Keshi remains a legend in Nigeria football but has nothing to offer the country as a coach. “I worked with Keshi for four years and know that he has nothing to offer the Eagles as la coach. We need to move our football forward and offer a contract to somebody who will breathe Nigeria to the front row of African football and the world.
Keshi cannot do this. He knows his limitations but has decided to hold up the same game that gave him fame and fortune in Nigeria. We cannot continue to be moving round in circles with one man on the centre as it without him nothing good can happen to our football.
If they will appoint him today, I’ll throw in my towel. That is my opinion and I wish them well,” Bassey who speaks a cocktail of language said.
Also, former captain and coach of the Eagles chairman Christian Chukwu blamed the Nigeria Football Federation for what he called “motion without movement” in the hiring of Stephen Kehsi.
“I blame the NFF for their slow actions. Time is running out against them as they have delayed the decision of hiring or not hiring him.
They have not further hurt Nigerian football as the next coach they’ll hire have an already made excuses of not having enough time to prepare the Eagles.
“I’ve spoken to Keshi as a brother; colleague but I don’t know what he truly wants. The joy of coaching is to reap during the harvest period and endure during famine.
I expected him to walk away and take one of his many offers.
He led the team to stop Keshi and the Eagles from going to the nation’s cup in Equatorial Guinea.
Meanwhile, Keshi has again lost out in his bid to replace Paul Put as coach of the Burkina Faso National team, following the appointment of Genort Rohr. 52 year old Keshi was rumored to be the front runner for the job due to his age, but it was the same case as when he was linked to the managerial role in South Africa and Burkina Faso, the country FA opted against naming him coach.
He was the preferred choice of the President to Burkina Faso FA Colonel Sita Sangare, but it has now been confirmed that former coach of Niger and Gabon, Genort Roh, was named coach instead of Keshi.
With this Scenerio on group it will be practically impossible and difficult for Keshi to work with NFF. His arrogance posturing is not even helping matters He seems to believe that without him Nigerian football cannot move to the next level and this has lead some members of NFF technical crew to be feeling bitter over the seeming inability of NFF to take decision on Keshi.
Paul Bassey a member of the NFF technical and development committee has vowed to resign if Keshi gets the nod.
Apparently reacting those fireworks from NFF,Keshi also said the NFFs are yet to pay him salaries for two month as well as the win bonus for the 3-1 home win over Sudan in a 2015 AFCON qualifier.
“I heard also Amadu said he has paid us everything, that he is not owing us. It is a lie, big time lie. He is owing us two months plus our winning bonus for the game against Sudan”. Said the coach.
“What is he talking about? Because I am keeping quiet, I don’t want to talk, I will start talking and let Nigerians know what is happening. “I will let Nigerians know what is happening. I don’t understand, how can Amaju, who says he is the President of Nigeria Football, be lying to Nigerians? Is that how he wants to run Nigeria football?
“They are owing us money that have not paid and instead of him to say okey there is no money he is telling everyone he has paid everything”.
At the time Keshi made the foretasted statement, has hopes were still very high that he will get Burkina Faso coaching job. But few days later his hopes crashed.
For the second time in as many attempts by out-of contract Super Eagle Coach, Stephen Keshi failed to land a coaching job after leading Nigeria to the world cup in Brazil; the coach has failed in his bid to become coach of Burkina Faso.
Keshi first indicated interest in the South Africa job after coach Gordon Ingesund’s contract was not extended in a twist of fate, Keshi was ignored and Masshaba was appointed.
Mashaba has since taken the Bafana Bafana to the nation’s cup.
The biggest blame goes to the NFF for not acting as an employer. I am saddened because Nigerian Football is all that is suffering,” Chukwu, one of the best players to come out form Africa said.
He also blamed NFF for putting itself in a fight by making Keshi the sole candidate of the post of handling the Eagles. “They’re waiting of him to study his contract before getting back to them. He remains the only one for the job. They have no alternative because they made him the sole candidate,” Chukwu said.
It appears that both Keshi and NFF do not appreciate the fact that what is at stake is Nigeria and the future of football development in the world’s must populous black nation. Their mutual exclusiveness on matters of discipline and remuneration in the football body makes Keshi exit a categorical imperative.