Uchegbulam refutes Eriksson bribery allegation, insists NFF did not interview him

By Sabitu Akano

Former First Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation Chief Amanze Uchegbulam has rubbished the statement of Sven Goran Eriksson in his book, accusing the then NFF of demanding half of his salary before he would be given the Super Eagles job as the technical adviser to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

The trending statement was wrote in the book titled ‘My Story’ by the former England coach and in his reaction, Amanze Uchegbulam who is the Chairman of Imo State Football Association, said: “it is very important I  put things in proper perspective as I was the first vice president then.

“Because we had chequered journey to qualifications for 2010 world cup,  President Goodluck Jonathan’s government set up a Presidential Task Force with then Governor Rotimi Amaechi as Chairman. Other members include Segun Odegbami, John Fashanu,  Austin Okocha, among others  while Patrick Ekeji was the Secretary.

 “Some of us resisted the interference which landed us in trouble. Our Executive committee decided to settle for Amodu who qualified us for the World Cup, but the Government never wanted that. The PTF interviewed some foreign coaches and later settled for Lager back who took the Super Eagles to South Africa”.

” The outcome is now history. Lulu’s Board never wanted a foreign coach and consequently, didn’t interview anybody. I am sure Eriksson may be referring to the PTF led by Rotimi Amaechi not the NFF Board then. We didn’t interview any foreign Coach and there is no where anyone in the Board could have interacted with him.

Uchegbulam further challenged the Coach to  further name those that made the request from him.

Sven Goran Eriksson has accused Nigerian football officials of asking to take half of his salary before giving him the job of managing the Super Eagles.

The Swedish football coach said his inability to play balls with the football authorities deprived him of the opportunity of leading the Nigeria team to the first World Cup on African soil – South Africa.