Deadlock!

The Custodian April 23, 2014 

After a marathon technical committee meeting with Super Eagles chief coach, Stephen Keshi yesterday, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) rejected the World Cup list submitted by the coach, ordering him to consult more before the list is made public and subsequently sent to FIFA.

At the enlarged meeting, which also had the NFF president Aminu Maigari and the media committee chairman, Emeka Inyama in attendance, Keshi was given more time to take another look at his list.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Keshi confirmed that he had made available a list of 38  players to the technical committee, noting that the invited players are expected to report to camp on May 27.

“The meeting went well, no problem. Everything is well. I have about 38 players now, from there I will take about 30 because that is what FIFA needs on the 10th of May and I can’t do more than that.” Keshi stated.

Paul Bassey who briefed the press on behalf of the technical committee said there was need to do more consultations before making the list public.

Bassey, stated that the federation was not in a hurry to release the list, even as he added that not making the list public now didn’t amount to a disagreement with the coach.

“We have decided to shelve the release of the list to give Keshi some time to make further consultations. We are not in a hurry because we have not heard of any country that has released their list. Let him do some more consultations, maybe in the next week or two it can be released. For instance, we hear Ejide has injury. The coach has to consult and find out how serious it is,” Bassey insisted.