Emenike slams NFF over Yobo

Forum 7 years ago

Emenike slams NFF over Yobo

Former Nigeria striker Emmanuel Emenike has described as “an insult” the decision of the Nigeria Football Federation to fix another match on the same day Joseph Yobo’s testimonial match will be played.

Nigeria will play a friendly against Mali in France on May 27, the same day the Yobo testimonial will be played in Port Harcourt.

West Ham forward Emenike said the NFF’s decision was disrespectful to the former Super Eagles skipper.

“If we are still on the same page of rebranding football, we should have the common sense of celebrating our heroes so that the younger ones in the team will live by example,” Emenike told AfricanFootball.com.

“Yobo deserves the honour and everybody has to turn up to celebrate him, but it’s unfortunate that it’s the NFF who are now looking like the obstacle to this testimonial. The Eagles players are the ones who want to play the Yobo match, tell me how that will be possible if they are in for another national assignment on that same day.

“We should change our mentality in order to reach greater heights of football in the world. Yobo was one of the best in Africa during his playing days, he’s a known name all over the world and he should be celebrated in a bigger way. The younger ones are watching, let’s change things.”

The 2013 AFCON winner and top scorer added, “I understand that the Joseph Yobo match will be played the same day Super Eagles have a match against Mali or whoever, is that the way it’s done in other countries?

“I think some people are just unserious about our football. This is a top match and Yobo has written a letter to the NFF before now, so why are they playing this international match also?

“We should also understand that we don’t respect our past heroes, we don’t appreciate the past, we only want people to come and die and forget about their life.”