President of Nigeria Football Federation, Aminu Maigari, on Thursday lampooned those who invented the talk of a ‘foreign technical assistant’ for Super Eagles’ Head Coach, Stephen Keshi, and then took their imagination to the public space to deceive the generality of Nigerians.
“At no time did anyone in the NFF, whether myself, the Executive Committee or the Management, contemplated, suggested, recommended or even tried to impose the idea of a ‘foreign technical assistant,’ ‘foreign technical adviser,’ ‘expatriate assistant,’ or whatever, on
Mr. Keshi.
“Some idle souls with fertile imagination invented this, sold it to their friends in the media and those chaps took it up with aplomb. It is a shame. The NFF made it clear long ago that it would not impose anyone on Keshi, and that will remain so. It is even more shameful that a number of disco critics had gone further to hurl insults at the NFF for this speculation that we know nothing about,” Maigari said in Abuja.
Insisting that the present NFF administration deserves credit for the way it has stuck by indigenous Coaches and for the successes it has recorded to regain Nigeria’s pride of place in the international game, the NFF President called on football-loving Nigerians at home and in
the diaspora to discountenance the silly campaign and treat it for what it is – idle speculation of opponents of Nigeria football.
“The present NFF has, in thick and thin, kept faith with indigenous Coaches. It is the first administration in the history of the NFF to do so. And over time, we have pledged full support to Keshi and the squad for them to make a very big impact at the FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil.
“Nothing has changed. Our full support will be available for Keshi and the team at all times and since he has not mentioned the issue of a ‘foreign technical assistant’ or ‘expatriate expert,’ no one in the NFF is thinking along that line.”
