NFF strips Keshi of sole authority in calling up players

The president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has revealed that coach Stephen Keshi, will no longer be solely responsible for calling up players for international games.

According to reports, Keshi was queried by the NFF, for selecting Gabriel Okechukwu, who is a non-league player for the squad against Chad and handing him the No. 10 shirt.

Pinnick has now said that Amodu Shuaibu, who is the federation’s technical director, will supervise national team call-ups along with former captain Austin Okocha, who is among the technical study group.

“Keshi will still have his input. The only people who are not really working well now is the technical study group because it is a process. He doesn’t have the liberty anymore to say he wants to bring in players from places”, Pinnick said.

“We must look at all the players [Keshi invites] and it must go through the technical department and Amodu [Shuaibu] will certainly make a comment. And like I told [Amodu], if anything happens we are not going to hold Keshi responsible but him, because [he is] a part of it”.

- Daily Post