Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi has assured the Super Eagles Chief Coach, Stephen Keshi, that he would reap the benefits of his labour by taking the senior national team to the 2014 World Cup holding in Brazil.
He noted that having won the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) and qualifying the nation for the world cup, the coach has technical capability to tinker the team at the world stage.
The Minister disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after the weekly Cabinet meeting presided over by Vice President Namadi Sambo.
However, Abdullahi said it is left for Keshi to say if he needs additional technical support ahead of the world cup, assuring that the National Sports Commission (NSC) and Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) would continue to support him.
Abdullahi said, “But going to the World Cup and given the targets we are setting for ourselves, as you know every game is a learning opportunity, just as players learn during games we believe coaches also learn during competitions.
“But of course, we will be open to reviewing all options and if coach Keshi which we believe has done very good job to put this team together from AFCON up to to this time, if he feels he needs additional technical support we are going to give it to him.
“But, we are confident he is capable of doing the job and if there are issues we can always talk about them. But we have confidence in his ability to lead the team to the World Cup,” he said.
Also, the Minister said he briefed Council on the recently concluded U-17 World Cup held in the United Arab Emirates and won by Nigeria’s U-17 team.
His words, “I also noted in my brief to Council that in all these achievements including the AFCON we won in January after 19 years and the athletics championships in senior, junior and youth categories, all these put together has position President Goodluck Jonathan as the most successful President in Nigerian sporting history”.
On the preparation for the 2014 world Cup, Abdullahi said “As you well know, the season has just ended, the national teams have shut down for the year and this gives us opportunity to review performances through the year.
“We played two matches in the last couple of weeks one in Calabar and the one in London against the Italian national team. And if you look at the two games you could see that the profiles are different. Of course the competitions were different but also the games were different in terms of approaches. We have received reports from outsiders but we are going to seat down with the coaches to review all these”.
On what the Commission intend to do to help the family of Friday Njengo who lost his life recently while on national duty, the Minister said “On the issue of the player, Friday Njengo that unfortunately died after the accident is really tragic to us because this is a young man with such a bright prospect.
“So, we have sent representation to the family and of course all players on national teams are under insurance cover. So we believe that the payment of the insurance will be done to the family but in addition to that, the Federation after the burial will think about what it can do for the family”.
