Abuja – Chinedu Obasi, former Super Eagles striker, recently made claims that he was dropped from the Super Eagles squad for the 2014 World Cup (managed by late Super Eagles legend Stephen Keshi) for refusing to give bribe.
However, Daniel Amokachi and Valere Houdonou who both served as assistants to Keshi during his very controversial reign between 2011 and 2014, have reacted strongly to the bribery accusations. Unfortunately, their reactions to the accusations have only served to give some credibility to it.
It will be remembered that only a few weeks ago Daniel Amokachi revealed that he regrets the dropping of Brown Ideye from the same squad, but that Keshi was solely responsible for the decision.
In response to Obasi, Amokachi did not refute the claim but chides the Elfsborg striker for not speaking up when Keshi was alive.
When these are put into context, then it is safe to say that Amokachi (was not in agreement with some of Keshi’s decisions – like the dropping of Ideye – but couldn’t question them at the time) is upset Obasi did not come forward earlier and have Keshi answer (to the people) for his decisions.
Amokachi alluded to the well-known fact that bribery happens in African football, and by admonishing that the striker should have “come forward” and been “the sacrifice to prevent others from going through the experience,” he implies some truth to the claim.
On Houdonou’s part, his defence was outright silly and unfounded, that it actually gave credibility to the accusation. First up, claiming “the coaching crew wanted to take the best (players) to Brazil” is contradictory because Amokachi earlier admitted that Brown Ideye deserved a place in the team ahead of some of the players who were picked for the World Cup.
Houdonou’s further claim that Obasi did not merit a place in the squad “given the array of stars available” is delusional at best. The attacking players in the World Cup squad included Ahmed Musa, Osaze Odemwingie, Emmanuel Emenike, Michael Uchebo and Uche Nwofor. Any ardent follower of Nigerian football knows that, of these players, Obasi was more experienced and far more talented than Uchebo and Nwofor, as shown by his performances for Nigeria on the world stage during the 2003 Under-17 World Cup, the 2005 Under-20 World Cup where he won a silver medal, the 2008 Olympic where he won another silver medal, as well as during the 2006 Nations Cup and the 2010 World Cup.
In the (2013-2014) season leading up to the 2014 World Cup, Obasi managed 8 starts and 11 substitute appearances (behind the likes of Jan Klaas Huntelaar and Adam Szalai), scoring 3 goals as Schalke 04 finished third in the Bundesliga and exited the Champions League at the knockout stage in the hands of eventual winners Real Madrid.
Meanwhile, in the same season, Uche Nwofor who was picked for the World Cup made only two appearances for VVV Venlo before being shipped out on-loan to Heerenveen where he could only make a further three appearances all season. It is worth noting that Nwofor played only these five games during that season – all in 2013 – and did not play a single league game in the year 2014.
Even Brown Ideye scored 10 goals in 29 games for Dynamo Kiev who came third in the Russian League and were beaten in the Europa League by Valencia (who lost to eventual champions in the semi-finals). Houdonou claiming that Uche Nwofor was one among the “array of stars available” who Obasi “could not displace” from the team is a very laughable attempt at refuting the allegation.
From the recent trend of claims and counter-claims concerning the 2014 World Cup team, it is increasingly obvious that there were shady sentiments at play in Keshi’s choice of players.
For so many players (Kunle Odunlami, Gabriel Reuben, Michael Uchebo, Uche Nwofor and Michael Babatunde, etc) who were not Nigeria’s best players at the time to be selected for a World Cup competition amid a bribery allegation, then it requires less than common sense to decipher what happened.
