Stephen Keshi has played down his supposed feud with Malawi coach Sainfelt by insisting that he did not mean any harm, other than defending the interest of Nigeria.
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"I was just standing up for my country when someone tries to make insinuations that it is not a safe place". The Afcon winning captain and coach for Nigeria told supersport.com.
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Malawi visit Nigeria on the 7th of September in a final group qualifier billed for Calabar, Nigeria. It is the venue that the Malawi coach wanted changed. He described the area as unsafe sighting some western embassies directives to their nationals. Stephen Keshi had taken exception to in an interview.
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"I have nothing against Sainfelt, he was in Nigeria recently and we shook hands and had a few things we discussed. I just was very unhappy that a man who last year was prepared to work for and in Nigeria with a four year contract can all of a sudden start to describe the place as 'unsafe' so am not having that".
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It would be recalled that Saintfelt was announced as Technical Director of the Nigeria Football federation and was all but set to commence duties when the appointment was scuttled by the Nigerian Sports minister who felt that it was better to appoint a Nigerian.
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Saintfelt has since offered his services to Malawi for free with a lot of rhetoric ahead of the crucial World Cup qualifier and his vitrolics about Calabar might have been part of mind games that coaches tend to employ these days.
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"I am not interested in all those sorts of things, my first aim is always to defend my country on and off the pitch. It was not a personal attack on the person of Sainfelt, it is unfortunate that it has come across like that, but this is my default mode of defending Nigeria".
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Nigeria has played most of their qualifiers since Keshi took over in Calabar and there has been no reported case of any visiting team being attacked. Nigeria need a point from the Malawi match to guarantee top place and into the play-offs of the African World Cup qualifiers.