President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Alhaji Aminu Maigari, has denied criticising Stephen Keshi, for selecting players from the Nigeria Premier League (NPL), in his FIFA Confederations Cup squad.
“I’m shocked to read that I said Keshi was wrong to have included players from the NPL to play in the Fifa Confederations Cup and against world champions, Spain. It’s not true and I want to state here categorically that I never made such remarks,” Maigari told supersport.com.
Maigari insisted that he is a big fan of the NPL’s players and coaches.
He said: “It’s unfortunate that people can say these things because I’ve always supported and promoted the NPL and its products.
“The NFF is currently in a partnership with the National Sports Commission (NSC) and League Management Company (LMC) to make the NPL a better brand so it would amount to folly on my part to talk down this project.”
The NFF chief then went on to praise Keshi and his team for doing well in their three games at the Confederations Cup in Brazil.
“I want to congratulate Keshi and the boys for a good show in Brazil. We may not have gone past the group stages but the Super Eagles gave a glimpse of what they can do in future,” he said.
“Nigerians have been supportive of the team and we urge them to remain patient because the future is very bright.”
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