Former Super Eagles head coach, Samson Siasia, has criticized the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for what he perceives as their neglect and apathy during FIFA’s investigation into allegations of match-fixing against him.
Siasia was embroiled in a controversy after FIFA found him guilty of bribery and suspected involvement in match-fixing, resulting in a life ban from all football-related activities in 2019. However, upon appeal, the sanction was later reduced to five years.
In a recent interview with Athlist, the 56-year-old expressed his disappointment with the NFF’s response to his predicament, accusing them of abandoning him during a critical period.
Siasia said: “Nigeria abandoned me at that time of need, that’s my own take on how this thing played out. It’s an allegation, they said bribery. What is bribery? Is it not when money changes hands? Was there any proof of that? There was none.
“I spoke with someone that was trying to hire me as a coach in Australia. I didn’t know the guy was a match-fixer, but FIFA knew this guy. Why would they allow him to be around any FIFA tournament?
“So when they found out through emails, our correspondence about how this guy would take me to Australia. I played in Australia, so I felt it would be nice to go back there. We talked about how much salaries, transfers, bonuses, sign-on fees, and that was all.
“When FIFA was looking for me, I didn’t even know. I am not affiliated to FIFA, their affiliation is with the NFF. So they went to the NFF and told them not to let me know that they were investigating me. But if they didn’t tell me, how was I supposed to defend myself?
“Then they sent me a letter, but it went to my spam. It was two days before the ban that I found out that FIFA was looking for me” Samson Siasia laments.
“Then we started to see how we could communicate with them to see how I could have a hearing. But they said the time had elapsed and I should go to CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sports).
“For me to do that was like two days. To find a sports lawyer in this country is not easy. You can hardly find one. So we struggled and managed. I can tell you that the boy we took to write the appeal brief for me to get that hearing is suing me up till today.
“It has been dragging because he said I have to pay €300,000 even though our initial agreement was in euros. I’m still struggling with that one just because Nigerians couldn’t stand up on their feet and check what was going on.”
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