BY JACOB AJOM & Okey Ndiribe
The Nigeria Football Federation will today sit to decide on the fate of embattled Super Eagles coach, Samson Siasia and his entire technical crew. The meeting has caught the interest of football fans across the country who are still bitter over the non-qualification of the national team for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

It is increasingly feared that the Bayelsa state-born coach may not survive this present turn of events as anger and frustration seem to have enveloped the land. There is an outright rejection of opinions suggesting that Siasia continues to stay as head coach of the national team, a job he took up barely one year ago.

What is presently working against the coach is a clause in his contract which specified that he must take the team to the semi finals of the 2012 Nations Cup.

“If he cannot qualify us for the tournament, then he has failed,” former Secretary General of the NFA, Sani Toro said in a recent interview.

Although officials have kept sealed lips on the matter, the football house set the ball rolling soon after the Eagles failed to beat their Guinean counterparts in Abuja on Saturday.

In an emergency meeting of its executive committee, hours after the Saturday debacle, the body mandated its technical sub-committee to draw up far-reaching recommendations on the way forward for Nigerian football.

In a move which has clearly defined Siasia’s future status, if he survives the present onslaught, the executive committee also tasked the technical sub-committee to “fast track” the engagement of a technical director for the football house without further delay. This has been interpreted as a means to ‘clip Siasia’s wings’.

Pressure is mounting from various interest groups. Only yesterday, the Lagos State chapter of the Sports Writers Association voted for Siasia’s sack based on his contract terms.

But with the reported quiet moves from some high quarters, Siasia may just survive, but it will not be business as usual for “the people’s coach.”