By Gracious Akujobi The Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Gbenga Elegbeleye, has lamented the ouster of the Super Eagles from the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.
A highly disappointed Elegbeleye in a chat with sports journalists in Abuja on Wednesday bore out his mind on Eagles ouster from the AFCON and said it was a big lesson for all concerned to guide against such occurrence in future.
“We are not happy about missing out of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. I can tell you honestly that we are not happy about it at all.
“Missing out of the next Nations Cup that we won in South Africa in 2013 and to so miss out as the defending Champions is so frustrating and unfortunate”, he lamented.
As regards the retention of the Super Eagles Chief Coach Stephen Keshi, the DG said it is the responsibility of the Nigeria Football Federation ( NFF) to hire and fire coaches, adding that the NSC would support the decision of the NFF on the matter.
“We are the supervisory body and we are not expected to do the job of the NFF for them. So if the NFF wishes to retain or otherwise of Coach Stephen Keshi it is their sole responsibility.
“We can’t do their job for them. We will support and respect their decisions on the issue” Elegbeleye clarified.
“What we need to do is to make Nigerians happy again by building a strong Super Eagles team that would be a pride of all. I think this again has afforded us the opportunity of having holistic look at where we are lacking in all aspects of the team.
“We are not short of quality and talented football players in this country so we shouldn’t be missing out of this kind of competitions that we should even be dominating.
“It is too bad we didn’t qualify but we will move ahead and adjust and correct our mistakes for future tournaments”, Elegbeleye said.
