Although some of the players who were alleged to have shown indignation with their exclusion have come out to deny the allegation and pledged their loyalty to the team, most Nigerians have come out to condemn the players’ action, saying the era of holding on to shirts permanently is over in the Super Eagles.
Lending support to the Amodu’s action in an exclusive interview with Trustsports, the Media Officer to the Confederation of Africa Football, Paul Bassey, described the action as the best Amodu has ever taken since he took over the Super Eagles job.
While congratulating Amadu and his assistants for the bold decision, he berated those Eagles who were alleged to have shown ire with their exclusion in the match against Kenya describing such action as very unfortunate, unjustifiable and lack of respect for the Eagles coaching crew.
“Can they argue with their clubs coaches in Europe just because they are excluded from a match or two? What they cannot do in their clubs should not be done here in Nigeria. Coach Amadu Shaibu is the only person who has the right to determine who to use to prosecute matches; it is not the job of any player to tell him who to use,” Bassey stated.
According to him, “Nigerian football fans were angry with Amodu for not using upcoming players who are consistently playing for their clubs. In order to pacify them, he had to give in to their demand by keeping established Eagles like Mikel Obi, Taiye Taiwo, John Utaka, Yobo Joseph, Yusuf Ayila, on the bench for 90 minutes.
He said instead of them to be angry, they should tighten their belts and give the upcoming Eagles good run for their money and retrieve their shirts from them, adding that it is only in Nigeria that players will threaten to boycott matches because they were not used in one or two matches.
“Yobo Joseph decided not to honour the friendly match against France because he played in the English FA final. But Nicholas Anelka who played in the same match returned to France immediately to play against Nigeria. You can see the difference between European players and Nigerian players in terms of commitment and patriotism,” he said.
