Fans tackle Keshi online

Head coach of Nigeria’s Super Eagles, Stephen Keshi, has described the failure of the national football team to qualify for next year’s African Cup of Nations event as heartbreaking.

In a statement posted on his Twitter page after the encounter with South Africa’s Bafana Bafana in Uyo on Wednesday, Keshi said, “Our boys showed determination to pull an equaliser, but it was not good enough.”

In an interview with online football magazine, goal.com, former Super Eagles star, Austin Okocha, had condemned the lacklustre performance of the team.

Blaming the players for the team’s exit, Okocha questioned their passion for the game and patriotism.

He said, “I think, to be honest, we will always produce talented players. But the question is whether they are passionate enough. People put pressure on them because it seems they don’t really care about the result.

“I think the players must wake up to their collective responsibility. Before they realise it, they are back in African football.”

The former captain of the Eagles told goal.com that the players did not take the game seriously until it was too late, saying they would have done well if they had qualified for the finals holding in Equatorial Guinea next year.

“I have no doubt that had we managed to qualify, we would have had a good tournament because you have to play really well once it comes to the tournament itself. The qualifiers are sometimes a bit tricky in Africa,” Okocha said.

The Nigerian Football Federation has taken full responsibility for the Super Eagles’ exit from the competition, saying it was not the best time to trade blames.

But the NFF’s humble position has not stopped thousands of Nigerians, who took to the social media after the match, to express their anger and frustration, blaming the Federal Government, football house, the coach and the players for their roles in the Super Eagles’ failure.

According to a statement posted on Twitter by Isioma Isichei, though Keshi may have his shortcomings, the challenges facing the country’s football transcend him. Isichei observed that vigorous policies and long-term goals required to build an efficient national team were lacking.

She added that the NFF could avoid a recurrence of such a disappointing Nations Cup campaign in the future by focusing on the development of Nigerian football and not through monetary benefits.

Arguing on Facebook, Rachael Mayomi noted that Keshi’s decisions lacked depth. She said the home-based players, whom he refused to use, could have performed better during the game.

Ugbah Lorenzo chided the coach for his failure to understand the mentality of foreign players. He said their local counterparts would naturally need a win – a fact that Keshi took for granted – just as Adesoye Alaoluwa argued that the poor performance was an indication that the country had no quality footballer. The exit, he said, provided football administrators an opportunity to rid the national team of mediocres and to embark on a process of rebuilding it.

But Precious Eghaghe was not surprised by the failure of the defending champions to qualify because, according to him, NFF had engaged in a self-destructive mission.