2nd November, 2011
Former Super Eagles coach Samson Siasia has launched a legal action against the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), following his sack last Friday.
Siasia is suing the NFF for breach of contract after he was fired for failing to take the country to the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.
BBC Sport reports that the 44-year-old’s legal team served his former employer with an ‘originating summons’ following his dismissal from the post, but no date has been set for the hearing yet.
The NFF announced that Siasia was sacked after he “breached a key clause in the contract” signed with the football authority on 1 December.
But Siasia’s legal team are claiming a breach in contractual agreement signed with the Nigeria football authority upon ‘termination of contract’.
According to them, the NFF has violated a formal 30 days’ notice and deprived the former Nigeria international of important working conditions, as agreed.
They claim he was not served a ‘dismissal letter’, provided with a physical trainer whilst he was in charge of the team and nor given accommodation as outlined in his contract.
The NFF legal department informed BBC Sport that a statement on this latest saga will be made available to the media at an appropriate time.
Last week, the NFF’s technical committee recommended the dismissal of the former international.
He came under huge pressure after the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the continent’s flagship tournament for the first time since the 1986 edition in Egypt.
Siasia was a popular choice after he guided Nigeria to the final of the 2005 Fifa Under-20 World Cup in the Netherlands and then the final of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
However, he fell out of favour after his team could only draw 2-2 with Guinea in Abuja on Saturday, 8 October in a match Nigeria needed to win to stand a chance of qualifying for the Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.