Chris Maduewesi
Member
Former Nigerian international Moses Kpakor has refused to blame only Stephen Keshi for Nigeria's failure to qualify for the 2015 African Nations Cup tournament.
Nigeria missed out on a place in Equatorial Guinea, finishing third in their group which was not enough to secure qualification.
Many people blamed Keshi for not being able to stem his team to qualification, however Kpakor said that there were a myriad of problems that caused the non-qualification.
“The NFF was in disarray before the game, hence we lost. The defeat had a psychological effect on the team. I don’t know why people chose the period of the qualifiers to fight over positions in the NFF," Kpakor told The Punch.
“Keshi is being critcised because we couldn’t qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations this time around. I don’t think he should take all the blame for the failure. The NFF should be blamed for not putting their house in order.
“I don’t think Keshi is the problem of the national team. We have people who are pursuing their own interests managing our football at all levels.
“We have been producing half-baked players in the country since the Golden Generation left because of bad management.
“The majority of our players didn’t play street football. Most of the players these days are playing because they want to make money, not because they love the game.
“Many of our foreign-based players are not playing for big clubs because they didn’t develop properly before leaving the country for professional football in Europe.
“There is nothing much Keshi can do to make them better players because he has just a short period of time with them.
“We played for street clubs and got selected for local government and state tournaments. The players who played for the big clubs in my days were spotted at such competitions.
“You can hardly find playing fields in most of our cities today. Where are the state and national youth tournaments in which players were discovered?
“We must accept that our football is in a mess. The game has been destroyed by people who are pursuing their self-interests.”
Nigeria missed out on a place in Equatorial Guinea, finishing third in their group which was not enough to secure qualification.
Many people blamed Keshi for not being able to stem his team to qualification, however Kpakor said that there were a myriad of problems that caused the non-qualification.
“The NFF was in disarray before the game, hence we lost. The defeat had a psychological effect on the team. I don’t know why people chose the period of the qualifiers to fight over positions in the NFF," Kpakor told The Punch.
“Keshi is being critcised because we couldn’t qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations this time around. I don’t think he should take all the blame for the failure. The NFF should be blamed for not putting their house in order.
“I don’t think Keshi is the problem of the national team. We have people who are pursuing their own interests managing our football at all levels.
“We have been producing half-baked players in the country since the Golden Generation left because of bad management.
“The majority of our players didn’t play street football. Most of the players these days are playing because they want to make money, not because they love the game.
“Many of our foreign-based players are not playing for big clubs because they didn’t develop properly before leaving the country for professional football in Europe.
“There is nothing much Keshi can do to make them better players because he has just a short period of time with them.
“We played for street clubs and got selected for local government and state tournaments. The players who played for the big clubs in my days were spotted at such competitions.
“You can hardly find playing fields in most of our cities today. Where are the state and national youth tournaments in which players were discovered?
“We must accept that our football is in a mess. The game has been destroyed by people who are pursuing their self-interests.”
