Tijani Babangida Praises Keshi, NFF On Provisional World Cup List

Published: May 12, 2014

Taraba United Chairman, Tijani Babangida has praised the leadership of the Nigeria Federation as well as his former National team colleague, Stephen Keshi on the 30 - man provisional World Cup roster unveiled to the public last week.

There was public outcry over some squad decisions made by Stephen Keshi but the former Ajax Amsterdam winger has insisted that the Super Eagles manager made the right calls.

“Stephen Keshi knows the best players to take to the World Cup. He has named 30 players but that is not the final list, he still has to bring it down to 23. There is no problem with his list.

“He has picked players that won him the Nations Cup and included few that he has been monitoring, so he knows what he is doing.

“That squad can perform well at the World Cup and meet the expectations of Nigerians and Africans,” Babangida told the electronic edition of Soccer Laduma Nigeria, SL10.ng.

He continued : “The coach should not be distracted. Those comments from Akpoborie were not necessary. The Nigeria Federation should be commended that they did not hire a foreign coach to distract the team.

'I expected Keshi to pardon Ikechukwu Uche because he did the same to Joseph Yobo and Osaze Odemwingie.”

Stephen Keshi must name his 23 - man roster five days after the tune - up game with Scotland in London.