The comeback king is dead, as the NFF have finally lost their patience with Nigeria boss Stephen Keshi . The national team coach was sacked a fortnight after it was reported that he had applied to replace Herve Renard as the manager of the Cote d’Ivoire.
The Big Boss denied that he was actively seeking out new employers, protesting that his name had been submitted without his knowing. Perhaps his objections might have been enough to have saved his skin, maybe the NFF could have given him the benefit of the doubt, had his name removed from the Ivorian shortlist, and the whole situation could have been dealt with differently.
However, things didn’t unravel this way, and the federation concluded that enough was enough for the Cup of Nations 2013-winning coach.
The statement that confirmed his departure, presented here in its entirety, was largely devoid of emotion, but was poignantly oblique in the way that it touched on the coach’s broader failings, without directly referring to the Ivorian situation.
Had Keshi’s journey up to this point been less riddled with conflict and controversy, and had the Big Boss not cultivated such a tortuous relationship with the NFF, he might have been given a second chance.
In the context of the coach’s reign to date, the federation had little choice. Whether you believe him or not, it’s one nightmarish headline too many.
The decision pushes the AFCON triumph of 2013 further into the past. The coach’s latest indiscretion reminds us that that glory, the achievement that was meant to herald the beginning of a brand-new era, was merely a false dawn at the beginning of a disastrous few years for the national side.
Once again, the behavior of the coach, and his wrought dealings with the administrators have stolen the headlines.
When the world thinks about Nigerian football these days, they don’t think about Ahmed Musa’s promise, of Moses Simon’s magic hips, of the mesmerising showings of Jay-Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu et al., they thing of Keshi, motionless on the touchline, motivated by question marks, the NFF sharpening their knives in the Glass House. The focus must return to the football, and the on-field output of the Super Eagles.
The reports about Keshi—unless they can be proved to be false, without any shred of doubt—undermine both the coach himself and the federation’s decision.
We are playing a power game here, and the country’s football power brokers cannot be seen to be soft or to be blind supporters of the Big Boss independent of his actions.
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