The leadership of the National Sports Commission (NSC) has condemned the non-qualification of the Super Eagles for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations despite doing everything humanly possible to ensure the team flies Nigeria’s flag in Equatorial Guinea, venue of the competition.
Nigeria’s coach Stephen Keshi gives a press conference at the Baixada Arena in Curitiba on June 15, 2014, on the eve of their Group F 2014 FIFA World Cup football match against Iran. AFP PHOTO
A highly disappointed Director General of the National Sports Commission, Honourable Gbenga Elegbeleye in a chat with Abuja based sports journalists said it was a big lesson for all concerned to guide against such occurrence in future.
“We are not happy about missing out of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. I can tell you honestly that we are not happy about it at all.
“Missing out of the next Nations Cup that we won in South Africa in 2013 and to also miss out as the defending Champions is so frustrating and unfortunate”, he lamented.
As regards the retention of the Super Eagles Chief Coach Stephen Keshi, the DG of the NSC disclosed that it was the responsibility of the Nigeria Football Federation to hire and fire coaches, noting that the NSC would support the decision of the NFF on the matter.
“We are the supervisory body and we are not expected to do the job of the Nigeria Football Federation for them. So if the NFF wishes to retain or let go Coach Stephen Keshi it is their sole responsibility. We can’t do their job for them. We will support and respect their decisions on the issue. Our responsibility is to ensure that all the NFF needs to give us positive results as regards the national teams is given to them. That is all”, Elebeleye clarified.
“What we need to do is to make Nigerians happy again by building a strong Super Eagles team that would be a pride of all. I think this again has afforded us the opportunity of having holistic look at where we are lacking in all aspects of the team.
‘We are not short of quality and talented football players in this country so we shouldn’t be missing out of this kind of competitions that we should even be dominating.
“It is too bad we didn’t qualify but we will move ahead and adjust and correct our mistakes for future tournaments”, Elegbeleye disclosed.
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