By Patrick Omorodion
Former spokesman of then Nigeria Football Association, NFA, Austin Mgbolu has condemned the application of Belgium coach, Tom Sainthfeith to coach the Super Eagles, years after insulting the country.

Tom Saintfieith

Writing on facebook, Mgbolu said that the Super Eagles “is too big for (Saintfeith)”, arguing that “No matter how bad those in authority may have projected our image negatively, you (Saintfeith) must have respect for Nigeria to work for Nigerians.”

Continuing the former image-maker of the football governing body stressed  that “We may have our differences, contradictions and commonalities as a nation but for an expatriate who desire to work for our national team and be paid with tax payers money to insult our sensibilities as a nation in Flemish language newspapers in Belgium four years ago and yet pretend that all is well is nothing but a complete idiocy.

Advising the Belgian to leave the Eagles alone, Mgbolu said “To further reapply for the same job years later thinking that we are suffering memory loss and won’t remember is nothing but stupidity.”

It would be also recalled that Saintfeith was engaged with the late Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi in a war of words after Keshi blasted him for daring to ask FIFA to move the World Cup qualifier between Nigeria and Malawi out of Calabar for safety reasons.

Keshi had taken exceptions to the call and described the the former Malawian coach as “a white dude”.

In the heat of exchange of words, Keshi had said,”If he (Saintfeith) wants to talk to Fifa, he should go back to Belgium. He is not an African person, he is a white dude, he should go back to Belgium.”

Saintfeith felt insulted by Keshi’s words and told the BBC that “It is unacceptable that any person says these words – it is clear racism. It is 100% sure that my lawyers will lodge a complaint with Fifa.”

Following Saintfeith’s complain, FIFA demanded a written guarantee that the match will go on safely in Calabar for the match from the NFF, which was complied with. The Malawians eventually came and lost the game 2-0 without any incident but the Belgian coach blamed the Madagascar referee, Hamada Nampiandraza for his team’s loss.