Keshi: sacked by NFF

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has sacked Stephen Keshi, coach of the country’s national team, the Super Eagles.

The Cable reports that the decision was made Wednesday night by the executive committee of the newly constituted Nigeria Football Federation, at a meeting at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.

Keshi, will now be replaced by Shaibu Amodu, a former coach of the team. He will be supported by Salisu Yusuf, Gbenga Ogunbote and Aloysius Agu. Garba Lawal, a former player will serve as the team ‘s coordinator.

Amodu as a caretaker coach, will take charge of the team for the last two matches in the qualifying round for the 2015 African Cup of Nations.

Keshi’s three-year contract with NFF actually expired at the end of the World Cup in Brazil, where he led the team to the second round of the competition, just after winning the African Cup of Nations.

The team have had a run of bad results since then, losing to Sudan and Congo in the Group A qualifiers and drawing with South Africa. The team recorded a 3-1 victory over Sudan in Abuja on Wednesday.

But the NFF executives did not seem to be impressed to give Keshi a new contract, more so since Keshi had boasted that he has several African countries waiting to hire him.

The Super Eagles are now rock bottom of Group A in qualifying for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations after winning just 4 points in four matches.

Speculation about 52-year-old Keshi’s future has refused to go away since the end of the World Cup finals in Brazil in July, after much-publicised rows with the likes of Emmanuel Emenike, Peter Odemwingie and Ikechukwu Uche.

His record of five defeats, five draws and just one victory in the last 11 matches has only compounded dissatisfaction and led to calls for him to quit.

In a statement, the NFF said Keshi and his coaching staff had led Nigeria to “glorious accomplishments” in the last three years and called the coach and his assistants “true national heroes”.

“However, in the interest of Nigeria football and the desire to ensure qualification for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations finals, the (executive) committee decided to relieve them of their duties with immediate effect,” it added.

The consortium of coaches, will be in place till November 19, after Nigeria would have played their last match against South Africa.Thereafter, an expatriate coach would be appointed.

Amodu’s re-appointment comes four years after he was sacked and stopped from leading the country to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

This will be his fifth stint with the Eagles having first taken charge of the team in 1994.

Keshi’s sacking comes despite NFF president Amaju Pinnick saying this week that the football association would not rush into a decision over Keshi’s future.

“We want our people to be patient and not stampede the federation to take knee-jerk decisions that will backfire in the end,” he said on Monday. But all those assurances now belong to the dustbin of football history.