The senior national football team, the Super Eagles, have raised an alarm over subterranean moves to hire a foreign technical adviser for the team, a development which may disrupt the team’s rebuilding process.

Indigenous coach Stephen Keshi has not lost a match since taking over the team last November and is on course to qualifying the nation for both the South Africa 2013 Africa Cup of Nations and the Brazil 2014 World Cup. Even so, some vested interests are scheming to hire and impose a foreign “expert” on him.

Blowing the lid open on the scheme, Super Eagles Media Officer, Mr. Ben Alaiya, lamented in a posting Sunday evening on his Facebook page: “At a time like this we need all the grace and calmness to fend off talks of an attempt to hire a TA for the national team, with less than a month to a crucial ACN qualifier against Liberia. Nigeria we hail theeeeeeee!” (TA stands for Technical Adviser while ACN is an acronym for Africa Cup of Nations.)

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has been accused of taking decisions capable of sabotaging Keshi’s efforts to qualify Nigeria for South Africa 2013. A report in Sporting Life, a Lagos daily, quoted a source at the NFF’s Glasshouse in Abuja as disclosing that the Federation would not approve Keshi’s request that home-based players resume camping this week in preparation for the all-important match return leg ACN qualifier against the Lone star of Liberia holding in the second week of October.

According to the source: “The coach has requested that the home-based players resume camping next week, citing that it would be difficult to allow the players to stay away for too long since the League is on break here at home. But the Federation may not likely buy to that, because that would mean that they would be in camp for almost one month before the match, and moreover, it is not that the team would be made up of virtually home-based players.

“We are going to advise him that the team come into at least two weeks before the foreign based players joined them. There is no money in the Federation, and that is the major reason why we have not met part of the contractual agreement with the Head Coach. So, he should understand with us, we appreciate all he is doing for the country.”

*Photo, courtesy Channels TV, shows President Goodluck Jonathan addressing the Super Eagles during a recent visit to the team’s camp.

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