NFF VS KESHI: Let’s Not Promote this Fight!

 Less than 3 months to 2014 FIFA World cup, when other participating countries are doting the ‘i’ and crossing the 't' on how to successfully prosecute their games in Brazil, we are reading on the pages of newspapers about the query Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) handed to Super Eagles Head Coach, Stephen Keshi.

You may have seen some of the headlines "Keshi Fall in NFF Hot Waters," "Keshi to Face NFF Technical Committee Sack," "Keshi Bow his knees to beg NFF Boss," "Keshi Raise Eyebrow over NFF Query." I hope the media isn't trying to fuel the fire.

I guess query is supposed to be an internal memo between an employer and employee as the case may be. It shouldn't be an issue for public consumption. As the memo stated, NFF needed Keshi to explain how things are unfolding on a number of issues - that's all!

The media shouldn't blow the matter out of proportion. Some of those insinuations that some officials of NFF doesn't see eye to eye with Keshi, since he refused a foreign technical assistant; and that may be reason Keshi boycotted the Tuesday March 25th meeting with NFF technical committee, who may insist on imposing one of him.

This isn't the case anyway. The query only requested that Keshi explain why he attended 'Tom tom' event in Lagos without the express permission of NFF marketing department, who is directly in charge of Official Sponsorship rights of brands partnering with Super Eagles. This is a marketing issue which has a lot of implications on partnership agreements with brands.

The query also requested that Keshi explain why he couldn't attend the meeting with NFF technical committee in Abuja. This is imperative as members of the technical committee deserve the right to know what transpired.

Query is a tool used to manage employees and I guess it was necessary for NFF to call Keshi to order and get him to focus on the world cup task at hand, nothing more. Therefore, I'm using this medium to ask the media to let this matter lie low for the interest of Nigerians who are hoping to enjoy Super Eagles entertainment at world cup. Remember, football is one sport the keeps our people together and happy. The media shouldn't play the Devil to spoil our anticipated fun this June.

The matter of provisional Team list disagreement between the technical committee and Keshi will also be resolved.