NFF begs Keshi to accept assistant coach

As the war rages over the employment of a foreign or local assistant for Stephen Keshi for the World Cup in Brazil,  the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, yesterday pleaded passionately with Keshi to see reason on the need for an assistant that would add value to his technical bench.

A member of the Technical Committee said yesterday that they have  resorted to begging Keshi because of his huge popularity with Nigerians.


“But Nigerians should also know the truth. We want to surpass our former outings in the previous World Cups. And to do that, we need the best for the team and for Nigerians. The Nigeria Football Federation are doing their best by providing quality friendly matches for the team. As Technical Committee members that are made up of some of the best legs to have played for Nigeria, we’ve seen that the Nigerian bench needs help.

That is why we asked Keshi to recommend any coach of his choice in or outside Nigeria. Such a person will work under Keshi and not coming to take over the team. We also want to employ a Video analyst for the team; one who can read tapes of Nigeria’s opponents. Many good teams have that. Take a look at the Brazilian bench. Another World Cup winning coach works with Felipe Scolari.

Without disparaging the good works of Keshi, we’ve realised that our technical bench needs help. We saw that in South Africa during the CHAN competition. After Morocco scored three quick goals in the first half, nobody offered any technical help to the players at half time. But when divine luck saw us beat Morocco, everybody talked about the technical savvy of our bench that turned things around in the second half. I challenge them to speak out if they offered any advise to the team other than ‘’you people should not disgrace me’’.

We’ve realised that we don’t have very good players and the good ones we have are not in the good books of Keshi. The World Cup is not for players like Solomon Kwambe, Chigozie Agbim, Benjamin Francis etc. These are the players Keshi wants to go to Brazil with. We know that the World Cup is bigger than these players’’, the official who pleaded anonymity said, insisting that they were only begging Keshi to see reason for the sake of soccer-loving Nigerians to work with an experienced ‘’ASSISTANT’’for a meaningful outing in the World Cup in Brazil.