NFF president Aminu Maigari
| credits: File copy

The Nigeria Football Federation has denied planning the downfall of coach Stephen Keshi and the Super Eagles as the team prepare for the World Cup in Brazil.

NFF president Aminu Maigari lashed out at some reports which said the football body was planning to replace Keshi with a foreign technical adviser, saying he could never think of harming the coach whom he influenced his coming to the national team.

“When the former coach Samson Siasia left the stage for obvious reasons, how many of those who are fronting for Keshi today wanted him as Nigeria coach? But in my wisdom and after talking to our executive committee members, he was appointed the coach and he can confirm to the whole world that we have been supporting him,” Maigari said in Abuja on Thursday.

“Some people just want to create publicity for themselves and use perceived disagreement with Keshi to insult us and win public acclaim. For the record, I can never work against a man that we collectively made the highest paid Nigerian coach alive today.”

Maigari also criticised some internet journalists who he said have been feasting on the supposed rift in the football sector. He said most of them write without facts and have been damaging the reputation of Nigerian football.

“If anyone is in doubt they should ask questions, but they will never do that. They go on Facebook and Twitter to damage the reputation of Nigerian football,” he said.

Maigari said the NFF is focussed on preparing the team for the World Cup, starting with the friendly games lined up for the Super Eagles.

Nigeria will play Scotland, Greece and the USA before heading to Brazil. The organisers of the game with the American team said on Thursday that over 20,000 tickets for the game have been sold.

The game will hold on June 7 in Jacksonville, Florida.

Meanwhile, Nigeria defender Leon Balogun is on the final phase of regaining fitness before joining the Super Eagles next month. The Fortuna Dusseldorf player said he would need two weeks to get back in shape.

Balogun, who was injured during a friendly with Mexico in Atlanta last month, said he had restarted workout at his club’s gymnasium.

“I’ve been going through the routine for some time and should be doing bike next week. The medics have said I should take it one step at a time, and hopefully I should be doing cross trainer next week. That will prepare me for physical running in two weeks time,” Balogun said.

“I’m happy that I chose to play for Nigeria because this injury has shown me how caring our people are. The promise I will make is that if I make the World Cup squad I will give my all at the championship.”

-Punch

Posted by admin on Apr 18 2014. Filed under Headlines, Soccer, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry