BY OKEY NDIRIBE

ABUJA— Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari has rejected suggestions that he was under any pressure from the Presidency to retain embattled Super Eagles Coach Samson Siasia after the team failed to qualify for 2012 African Cup of Nations to be co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Speaking to sportswriters in Abuja yesterday, Maigari said he was worried by the decline in Nigerian football especially against the background of the na-tional teams crashing out of various international competitions and at club levels.

He called on Nigerians from various walks of life to come forward with proposals on how to move the nation’s football forward since every Nigerian was a stakeholder.

It would be recalled that after the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2012 African Cup of Nations, on October 8, Enyimba Football Club of Aba lost to Wydad Casablanca of Morocco in the semi-finals of CAF Champions League, while Sunshine Stars of Akure also lost 1-0 to Club Africain of Tunisia in the first leg of the CAF Confederations Cup in less than two weeks.

As if this was not enough, the national female team the Super Falcons also failed to pick a ticket for the football event of the 2012 London Olympics when they lost to their Cameroonian counterparts last weekend in Yaounde.

Presently all eyes are on the National Under 23 Team- the only national football team still involved in international competition- for the qualification race of the 2012 London Olympic Games.