Keshi: I was never sacked

Stephen Keshi has refuted the claim that he was sacked as head coach of the Super Eagles, saying he had no contract with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) in the first place.

The new NFF board relieved Keshi of his job on Thursday despite Nigeria’s 3-1 home win against Sudan a day earlier that kept the team with a mathematical chance of qualifying for January’s Africa Cup of Nations.

Keshi, who has been replaced with Shuaibu Amodu, is not happy with the way the media disseminated the news.

“I am not happy with the way media people are reporting this to the public, because I don’t understand how you would fire someone that has no contract,” he told supersport.com.

“My contract expired after the World Cup in Brazil, and I never made any effort for my contract to be renewed because of so many issues on the ground.

“I have accepted my fate, and I would move on with my life, but I want to make it clear that I was never sacked because I had no contract.”

Keshi also denied telling the press that three African countries had shown interest in him to be their manager.

“I have never told anybody that three African countries are looking for me, and as far as I’m concerned, no nation has called me for any talk,” he said.

Despite not being in charge of the team any longer, the Big Boss still expects to see Nigeria at the next AFCON.

“I know Nigeria would qualify for the 2015 Nations Cup because we have the players that can do the job, but they need a lot of encouragement and support from Nigerians and I wish them good luck in their next two games,” Keshi said.

Nigeria have four points after three matches and will meet Congo, who are second on seven points, in the next Group A match on November 15.

Group leaders, South Africa, travel to Nigeria for the final qualifying game on November 19.