23rd June, 2015
Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi has said that the allegation that he applied for the job of coaching Ivory Coast senior national team, the Elephants, was the work of his enemies who want him sacked from his current job.
The news broke when the Federation Ivoirienne de Football, FIF, published a list of candidates that applied for the vacant managerial post in which Keshi’s name was listed as one of the only two Africans who applied for the job.
Keshi, however, said that the allegation is purely the work of his detractors who want to divide and conquer, all in the bid to give the coaching job to their own candidate.
“They want to talk to me but let me talk to them first; I’m tired of all these Keshi do this Keshi do that. If they want to give the job to somebody else like they are planning, let them go ahead but they should stop destroying my name everywhere,” he said.
The coach is scheduled to appear before a disciplinary committee of Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, to explain how his name was mentioned among the applicants for Ivory Coast job.
Keshi signed a new contract in April to resume his role as gaffer of the Eagles after guiding the team to winning the 2013 AFCON title in South Africa and a second round finish at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
The NFF order and disciplinary committee would be meeting on Tuesday to deliberate on some pressing issues amongst which will be that of Keshi and has now threatened that appropriate action will be taken upon an outcome of a detailed investigation if truly Keshi applied for the Ivory Coast job which is being seen as a breach of the contract he signed only two months ago.