Application for Ivory Coast job: Keshi has not committed any crime- Peters

Former Super Eagles Coach, James Peters has said that Super Eagles Chief Coach Stephen Keshi has not committed any crime if he actually applied for a coaching job with the Cote d’ Ivoire Football Association if such clause is not included in the contract he signed with the Nigeria Football Federation and should not be castigated for doing so.

“As far as I am concerned and as far as this country is concerned, there is freedom of speech, there is freedom of association and there is freedom of nearly everything. If Keshi decides to apply to Ivory Coast to apply for a job it is not a crime.

“Maybe Keshi is not satisfied with what he was given here (in Nigeria by the Nigeria Football Federation) that is why he is looking elsewhere for a better and a greener pastures for his family. There is nothing wrong for a coach to apply for job anywhere even when he is working somewhere.

“I don’t find anything wrong with that. If he has applied and if he takes the job he will come back here (the NFF) honourably and say sir thank you very much for employing me. I think I got  a better offer somewhere and I want to go and take up that job.

“The problem here is that you must always guide against anything like the raining day. That is why you need to have a sound technical department in the Nigeria Football Federation. If you have a sound technical department with qualified and able coaches they can always step in at any giving time when somebody leaves his job half way or suddenly. I have done that before when I stepped in for another coach, so there is nothing new in that.

“All over the world you are allowed to apply for a job so this action is uncalled for. If Keshi gets a job today and goes, the NFF should ask somebody in the technical department to take over.  If he does not get the job he continues.  If Keshi apply for a job will he come and tell his employers that he has applied? He won’t. You applied to get a job. If you get it fine, if you don’t you continue with your job. That is how I look at it. I don’t  see anything wrong with him applying for a job anywhere.

“But if he did it, it is a very bad thing, but they should not take this as a major issue. It is not an issue. They should not castigate Keshi  for applying. What they should do is that they should look at him whether he is doing his work correctly or he is not doing it correctly. If he is not doing it correctly then you can take the right action. When he was signing contract with the Nigeria Football Federation, did he say he will not apply for another job again.

“Is it in the contract? If it is in the contract that he said he won’t apply for another job again as long as you give him hob here (as Eagles Chief Coach) then if he applies you can hold him liable. But if he did not say anything like that in his contract then he is free to apply anywhere.

“There were many coaches who came to this country that were working for the Football Federation and still applied to other places for jobs. But we didn’t bother because we have to first finish your job. If such coach signed for two years he must finish the contract or pay us back the remaining period left to complete his terms of contract before he would be allowed to go,” Peters explained.