Nigerian football has been in a state of disarray for a while now and the highlight of the current crisis is the lack of a coach for the Men national team after Stephen Keshi’s contract ran out in the summer.
Plans to reinstate the AFCON winning coach has proved abortive with both parties failing to come to terms with financial agreement.
There has been lot of criticism from the public about Stephen Keshi with some feeling his wage demand is too high while others feel he is spot on with the wages he is asking for.
Stephen Keshi won the African cup of nations in 2013 and took the team to the second round of the 2014 FIFA world cup.
No doubt the coach has been impressive in his time with the Super Eagles but his contract has not been renewed by Nigeria Football Federation leaving the senior National team without a coach with few days to the AFCON qualifiers.
Although Stephen Keshi has responded to the appeal of the Sports Miniser and Nigerians to manage the super Eagles for the next two games, his contract issue remains unresolved.
Nigeria will face Congo and South Africa in the first week of September for the African Nations cup qualifiers and Stephen Keshi will be in charge of the team.
Another question is whether Stephen Keshi is supposed to take up the job without a contract.
Stephen Keshi is also hoping the Super Eagles can go all the way in Morocco 2015 to defend the title the won in South Africa last year.
His contract talks have been hampered with the present chaos in the Nigeria Football Federation including the sacking and FIFA-ordered reinstatement of Aminu Maigari, former president of NFF.
Although there have been conflicting reports as to how much Keshi is demanding for but it’s believed to be in excess of 10 million naira monthly.
Keshi however hopes everything can be finalised as soon as possible after the qualifying matches so as to help with concentration of the team.
Christopher Giwa, the chairman of Nigeria Professional League club side Giwa Football Club was on Tuesday elected as the new president of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) beating former vice president, Mike Umeh to the candidacy with 29 out of 44 members voting.
With the new management, Nigerians will hope there will be a positive growth in Nigerian football with Stephen Keshi expected to reach an agreement as soon as possible.
Some members of the federation were arrested before the start of the congress on Tuesday and the crisis in the federation still remains unresolved as they risk the another hammering of football governing body FIFA.
Giving a total report on the happenings at the “Glass house” is presently very difficult with different reports flying around but all these will have to be put in order as soon as possible to save Nigerian football.
The current sad state of football in Africa’s most populous nation may have hindered proper preparation but the temporary return of Stephen may cause more crisis later as he’s presently doing so out of contract.
No matter the decision made by the new board, it’s important to fix Stephen Keshi’s contract if the team will prepare well enough for future competitions except they have another manager in mind.
