Big Lad back in the frame
As international exiles (or retirements) go, Big Lad's was somewhat short-lived. Only last week Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi was lamenting the fact that our long-serving striker repeatedly made himself unavailable and so would need to be overlooked in future. And yet now he's back in the fold.
The key to his return appears to have been the removal of a clause in his Newcastle contract preventing him from competing in the Africa Cup of Nations. The fact that we've consented to this would suggest that we're no longer so bothered about him being available for selection by the Silver Fox - an indication that the much-needed striking replacement for Demba Ba is on the way, or just that Big Lad is deemed too old or too inconsistent to be of much use? We'll see, but perhaps it's both.
Update 1: Commenter Paul has suggested that in fact any such clause would be virtually meaningless, as it would be in contravention of the FIFA regulations - so a third possibility is that the Nigerian FA have gently reminded the club of this and it's been dropped.
Update 2: Since the last update, another commenter suggested that the mooted "clause" was actually simply an informal agreement - something borne out by Big Lad's latest comments. So a case of something getting twisted in translation, then. Still, regardless of the semantics and intricacies, it remains interesting that the club has now decided to no longer stand in his way.
The key to his return appears to have been the removal of a clause in his Newcastle contract preventing him from competing in the Africa Cup of Nations. The fact that we've consented to this would suggest that we're no longer so bothered about him being available for selection by the Silver Fox - an indication that the much-needed striking replacement for Demba Ba is on the way, or just that Big Lad is deemed too old or too inconsistent to be of much use? We'll see, but perhaps it's both.
Update 1: Commenter Paul has suggested that in fact any such clause would be virtually meaningless, as it would be in contravention of the FIFA regulations - so a third possibility is that the Nigerian FA have gently reminded the club of this and it's been dropped.
Update 2: Since the last update, another commenter suggested that the mooted "clause" was actually simply an informal agreement - something borne out by Big Lad's latest comments. So a case of something getting twisted in translation, then. Still, regardless of the semantics and intricacies, it remains interesting that the club has now decided to no longer stand in his way.
Labels: africa cup of nations, contracts, internationals, shola ameobi
posted by Ben at 7:17 pm
4 Comments:
"The fact that we've consented to this would suggest that we're no longer so bothered about him being available for selection by the Silver Fox - an indication that the much-needed striking replacement for Demba Ba is on the way, or just that Big Lad is deemed too old or too inconsistent to be of much use?"
Or the fact that it's illegal under FIFA regulations perhaps?
Is that the case? If so, cheers for pointing it out - but it does beg the question of how the club was able to insert the clause in the first place. (Or are you suggesting the clause never existed and Keshi is just bullshitting?)
Ben, there's a link to the FIFA regulations below.
Internationals take priority over national club championships with one exception, friendlies arranged outside the standard international calendar. Newcastle United's clause wouldn't stand up for a second before a FIFA tribunal, and the Nigerian FA could've hammered NUFC if they wanted to, but they didn't.
Keshi is a huge fan of Ameobi and besides his attributes as a player, he sees him as a great father figure, and potentially a coach for the younger members of the Nigerian squad. He was incredibly understanding about Ameobi sacrificing what was probably his only chance to win a major international competition for his club.
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/administration/ps_792_en-annex_ii_74.pdf
There was never a clause in his contract, there was an agreement between Shola and Alan Pardue. Shola stuck to that agreement in Jan, and withdrew from the ACON squad. There was nothing the Nigeria FA could do about it - they can't force a player to play for them.
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