Eduok agrees with NFF’s decision to drop him

Emem Eduok has admitted that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) were right to have thrown him out of the Super Eagles camp following his transfer saga.

The striker, who bagged 20 league goals with Dolphins in the just-concluded Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), is involved in multiple registrations with Sarspsorg 08 of Norway and Esperance of Tunisia.

The NFF then asked Eduok to leave the team’s camp on Tuesday due to the transfer imbroglio and the player agrees with the decision.

“I don’t think I should be with them (Eagles) because I was not concentrating anymore, I was just thinking and I agree with them (NFF). I have to go, it is the right thing to do. I’m a man and I have to face whatsoever comes up,” he said.

“I appreciate and I have nothing to worry about, so I think it’s the right thing to do. I’m in Abuja now, but I will leave today (Wednesday). It is the right thing for me to do now. I have to go home because I have to decide my future and go where I want to go.”

But Super Eagles stand-in coach, Daniel Amokachi, has said that he will not miss the striker who was dismissed from the team ahead of the friendly games against Ivory Coast and Sudan.

“As a coach you don’t miss just one single player, and my focus is on the other 23 players in camp. One player cannot do what I want on the field of play,” he told NAN.

“We have over 160 million people in Nigeria and out of that 160 million we have 20 million people who play football and Eduok is one of them.

“He is lucky to be picked. He is not the best player, because everybody has his own ordained time.

“Though he is a player that we need, but we have other players who can do what he does on the field.

“We just wish him the best in his contract saga,” he said.

Amokachi said however that the team’s technical crew was contacted before the decision to decamp Eduok was made.

“The NFA Chairman consulted the team’s technical crew and the crew consulted the coach before the player was contacted.”

Meanwhile, Fanny Amun, former secretary-general of the NFF said it was wrong for the federation to decamp Eduok over his contract dispute.

“If he has not been sanctioned by CAF or FIFA, why is the NFF in haste to throw him out of camp? Anybody, who took that decision should have considered that first. I am not saying that the decision they took was wrong but, for me, they (NFF) were in haste,” Amun told NAN.

“That decision was done out of over zealousness because many players had the same issue in the past and the issue was later rectified. The NFF should go and rectify that problem,” he said.

Amun, who had also coached the Golden Eaglets, said Eduok’s case was not different from that of John Mikel Obi who was involved in a contract dispute with Chelsea and Manchester United.

“I was the person who settled the case between Obi, Lyn Oslo, Chelsea and Manchester United.

“There was noise everywhere, but I went to the different clubs and settled the issue. I also went to FIFA to settle it quietly.”

Felix Anyansi-Agwu, the chairman of NFF’s technical and development committee, has assured Nigerians that his committee would be thorough in investigating the Eduok contract saga.

A statement by Ademola Olajire, NFF’s Assistant Director (Communications), quoted Anyansi-Agwu as saying that no one found culpable would be treated as a sacred cow.

“The NFF chairman has explained clearly why Eduok was sent out of camp, and I believe that people fully understand why we needed to take that action.

“I am on the issue as directed by the NFF Chairman and I can assure you that all those who are eventually indicted in the matter will be sanctioned.

“The messy transfer is already generating negative publicity for Nigerian football and we are uncomfortable with that.”