The entire football world was held
in shock and disbelief when Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi revealed on
Wednesday that he had not been paid seven months salary by the Nigerian
Football Federation.
It means the former Nigeria captain last
got his salary in February, when he led the national team to a third Africa Cup
of Nations title in South Africa.
Thereafter, Keshi, who has also
managed Togo and Mali, had led the squad to the FIFA Confederations Cup and has
remained unbeaten in the African qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup.
In fact, one game stands between
Keshi’s team and qualification for Brazil 2014. Nigeria’s fifth ticket to the
Mundial looks almost sealed after the Eagles defeated the Walya Antelopes of
Ethiopia 2-1 in Addis Ababa, in the first leg of the African final qualifiers
for the World Cup.
With the nation in jubilant mood
ahead of the second leg against the Ethiopians next month, Keshi’s revelation
was the least any football loving person would have thought about.
BBC Sport quoted Keshi as saying,
“The lowest point of my career is working and not being paid for seven months.
I have never had this kind of experience before.
“In Mali, they will never owe you;
your salary will hit your account before the end of every month. It was the
same thing in Togo,” he said.
“Owing me up to eight months makes
me feel I am not being appreciated, it is like they think I am being favoured
in what I am doing.
“I am not being favoured. I am
giving everything I have to the job — I need to be respected and given my pay.”
The NFF over the years have earned a
reputation for its inability to pay coaches of the national teams. In recent
times, the likes of Shaibu Amodu, Christian Chukwu, Samson Siasia, Austin
Eguavoen, John Obuh and Eucharia Uche have been owed salaries.
Chukwu, who led the Eagles to a
third-place finish at the 2004 AFCON in Tunisia, laments Keshi’s situation.
The 1980 AFCON winner said, “It is
very unfair not to pay Keshi his salaries. It is an insult to indigenous
coaches. How do you expect him to concentrate and perform? He has a family; how
do you expect him to take care of them?
“This issue of unpaid salaries has
been on for a very long time and I thought it had stopped. My case has been
there and still there. Even Amodu was a victim. It even extended to the Super
Falcons and the age-grade national teams.
“Maybe Keshi should have received
his salaries ahead because if it was a white man, they would have paid him in
advance.”
But ace sports writer and
broadcaster, Frank Ilaboya, disagrees with Chukwu on the issue of only
Nigerian-born coaches being owed by the NFF.
“Even the foreign coaches have been
owed before. The likes of Berti Vogts, Manfred Hoener, Phillipe Troussier and
Lars Lagerback have been owed. It’s not about Nigerian coaches; it is an
attitude that must change,” Ilaboya said.
Ilaboya frowned at a statement
reportedly credited to the NFF saying that the allowances and bonuses Keshi
earned were enough to sustain him.
He said it was unfair to treat the
national coach in that manner after having gradually turned around the fortunes
of the Eagles.
“I can’t believe this is happening
now. If what I read about an official of the federation saying that his (Keshi)
allowances were enough to take care of him is true, then it is unfortunate. How
can anyone say that?
“The coach is entitled to his
salaries; just as he is entitled to his allowances and bonuses.”
Observers say Nigerian coaches have
a role to play in their unfortunate predicament. A domestic league coach, who
pleaded anonymity, said most of the coaches who get national appointments get
carried away, without signing their contract papers properly.
“Our coaches exert their energies in
trying to undo other local coaches for a particular national team job and they
then sign contracts that enslave them,” he said.
But Chukwu, an assistant to Dutchman
Clemens Westerhof when the Eagles won a second AFCON title and qualified for
their first ever World Cup in 1994, strongly disagrees.
The 1980 Green Eagles captain,
popularly known as Chairman, said most times the coaches fall victim because of
patriotism.
He said, “That is not true. We sign
the right contracts. You know, because you are patriotic, you don’t want to
take the federation to court. Foreigners won’t take that.
“We have worked outside Nigeria
before and nobody owed us. I got all my entitlements and was treated like a
king when I worked in Lebanon and managed the Harambee Stars of Kenya.
Interestingly, former Falcons coach,
Eucharia Uche, has appealed to Keshi to be patient with the football running
body.
The former Nigerian striker won the
2010 African Women’s Championship title but was booted out of office for her
failure to qualify the side for the 2011 All-Africa Games in Mozambique and the
2012 London Olympic Games.
During Uche’s time as coach of the
Falcons, the NFF hired a German, Thomas Obliers, as her assistant.
Obliers reportedly collected $63,000
while with the women’s national team for a very short time.
But the NFF allegedly owed Uche, a
widow and mother of two, two years salary. She was supposed to be paid N300,000
($2000) monthly.
Uche said, “Keshi has done very well
but I will advise him to be patient with his employers. Definitely, delay is
not denial. Maybe they are trying to sort out some things. There is no cause
for alarm yet.”
An Eagles midfielder, who pleaded
anonymity, said the NFF’s attitude could affect the national team
psychologically.
“If they don’t pay the coach his
money, how are we sure they will pay our allowances and bonuses. What they are
doing can make the players not give their best to the team. Personally, if I
get injured while on national duty, will anybody look my way again? This is not
good for our football. Pay the coach his money,” the player stated.
The issue took a new twist on
Thursday when the National Sports Commission gave the NFF 48 hours to explain
why the national coach was owed seven months’ salary.
The NFF receives its funding from
the sports commission.
“As far as I am concerned, it is a
national embarrassment. If they are having challenges with raising money, they
should have come to us. But they have not complained to us that they cannot
pay,” NSC Director-General, Gbenga Elegbeleye, was quoted as saying.
He added, “The coach is not like the
secretariat staff, he is on a contract. Because their staff have not been paid
does not mean the national coach should not be paid.
“If he gets sacked today, there is
no gratuity, so why should he suffer?”
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