Nigeria Would Have Qualified For AFCON 2015 But NFF Sabotaged Our Efforts- Emmanuel Attah

Former Super Eagles team coordinator, Emmanuel Attah has revealed that the Nigeria Football Federation, under former NFF president, Aminu Maigari sabotaged the efforts of the 2013 AFCON champions from defending their title at the 2015 edition staged in Equitorial Guinea.

Nigeria kicked off on a low after losing to Congo at the Adokiye Ameisimaka stadium, Calabar and eventually finished below South Africa and Congo, but Attah said that the NFF delibrately frustrated all their effort to shame Keshi.

"l know, I believe and I stand by what I am about to say. Sabotage played a prominent role in our not qualifying for the 2015 AFCON in Equatorial Guinea. We were sabotaged," Attah told DailyTrust .

Attah also disclosed that the NFF were aggrieved that they never got any commendation from the team which was why purposely subjected the team to ridicule in the hands of match officials and the likes.

He admitted that the way former coachn Stephen Keshi went about his resignation business wasn't palatable but the NFF were only living for self glory.

"Presently I am writing a book on the details of what really transpired. If you rewind your memory to that match in Calabar against Congo, the officiating was quite funny. Very, very funny. 

"Later a friend in Ghana where the referees came from confided in me that 'that was what your country wanted'. The details will come. Apart from that when we were about leaving to play South Africa, I played on the psyche of a highly placed member of the then NFF. 

"I asked him why did you people abandon us? We used to work together. And he said Riggogo, for that is how he calls me, and I quote him 'I think you people think you can play alone without us, make una go win make we see '. 

"I was shocked but I told him, he is not God. Eventually we got a draw against South Africa. The next game was against Sudan in Nigeria and we would have lost, if not by the grace of God," he continued.

"I will trace the problem to the post Nations Cup victory and like I said some of us might have made some mistakes. After the Nations Cup victory, Keshi resigned and we all heard the reasons he gave for his resignation. The manner he went about it did not go down well with the then NFF president [Aminu] Maigari who felt slighted. 

"Again, when the team was hosted by the Presidency, either by omission or commission, the NFF with all its contributions was not even mentioned and the backroom staff were left out of the honours list. This was a serious over sight, if it was and that also added to the problems in the team. 

"Thirdly we played the qualifiers during the crisis in the NFF and that affected the team. We were not sure whether or not FIFA would ban Nigeria over the election issues.

"Psychologically, the players were not ready for our opening match against Congo and we lost the game in Calabar and that was not good for the team. It affected our subsequent matches," he concluded