It was gather that Malawi coach, Tom Saintfiet
is going to report Stephen Keshi to Fifa after the Nigeria coach called him “a
white dude who should go back to Belgium”.The reason been that,both were arguing
since Malawi asked FIFA to move next month’s crucial World Cup qualifier from
Calabar for safety reasons
However,Ekoku, who played in the same
Nigerian Africa Cup of Nations winning squad as Keshi in 1994, told BBC that “I’m
mystified. I’m extremely disappointed – a little bit angry as well, that a guy
who’s as smart as Stephen is, has been around international football for a long
time, has traveled has played in Belgium, was a very good footballer with a
big profile in African football as well – would feel the need to say something
like that.”
Ekoku, went on to say that Keshi “does shoot from the
hip occasionally”.
“He’s been very outspoken, saying
there should be a lot more African coaches, home based coaches who are in
charge of their national team.
“This kind of comment has been
brewing for a while, but as I said, I’m extremely disappointed that he’s chosen
to vent his frustration or anger in this way.”
Saintfiet believes Keshi “is angry
because of the request to change the venue”, but the Belgian stands by his
feeling that Calabar is unsafe. Ekoku has never been to the venue, and although
he doesn’t agree with Keshi’s language, he does have some sympathy with his
view of Calabar:
“Calabar, I know – in the Eastern
part of Nigeria – is relatively calm. As far as I’m aware, there haven’t been
any disturbances there in the last 25 or 30 years so I can’t see the reasons
for the Belgian coach wanting the match to be shifted in the first place.
Stephen Keshi is obviously a little big angry that he’s made this request and
he’s decided to respond in that fashion which is unfortunate for everyone
concerned with Nigerian football”.
“Not to qualify for the World Cup in
Brazil next year would be an absolute disaster, and I’m sure it would cost
Stephen Keshi his job.
“Can they go on and perform very well
at the World Cup if they qualify? I doubt that the squad is actually that good.
I think we’ve had better teams in the past.
“This one went to the Cup of Nations
with reduced expectation and that probably worked in their favor We’ve had
better generations of Nigerian footballers and we’ve not been able to win.
“This group of players has won
something, we have one or two promising guys. I certainly hope that they can
improve and we can find ourselves – in terms of consistency – at the top of the
continental game for years to come”.
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