NIGERIA: Keshi Shifts Focus On Tanzania After Addressing NFF

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi has asked that attention should be shifted from his alleged application for the job of the Cote d’Ivoire national team to the Super Eagles’ next Africa Cup of Nations qualification match against Tanzania in September.

The 53-year-old has come under intense scrutiny since the 2-0 victory over Chad after he put a non-league player on the bench and his name also appeared on the FIFA website as one of more than 50 coaches applying to fill in the space left by Herve Renard.


He was invited to appear before the Disciplinary Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation on Tuesday in order to put straight issues.

"Everything went well, the NFF will talk to you on that but everything went well. Like you guys know, I never applied for the Cote d’Ivoire job,” Keshi said after emerging from the committee meeting headed by Barrister Christopher Green in Abuja.

On whether he would be taking legal action against whoever penciled his name for the job, if he eventually proves that he did not apply for the job, Keshi said: “My name pops up everywhere. It happens to every coach. So it is not a big deal.

"My name is always everywhere. The question is that should I take Ethiopia to court, should I take Kenya or Tanzania to court?”

While the NFF also invited the duo team captain Vincent Enyeama and midfielder Ogenyi Onazi to appear before the committee, Keshi denied knowledge of their whereabouts and their invitation.

"No I am not aware. I only know about my own invitation. You can ask the NFF officials they should be able to tell you," Keshi said.

However, he told media and football stakeholders to shun gossip and work together in order to face the task ahead which is how to beat Tanzania in their next qualifying game of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.

“We thank God for the victory in Kaduna against Chad. Now I think what we should be thinking of is how prepared we are to face and win our away match against Tanzania, that should be our mission right now not what the media said about Keshi.

“We need to change from all this little gossip and all these stuff, we need to go ahead and forge a formidable team which includes the press, the players, NFF so that we can conquer the world and conquer the African Continent. My focus right now is to prepare for the game against Tanzania.”