“There are promises here and there. And, of course, you know the situation in the country at the moment. But I still remain optimistic, given their words of promises that at most, by this February ending, I should be able to get enough financial assistance to sort things out”.
Asked about the allegations of his involvement in a match fixing, Siasia reacted sharply.
“That’s not correct. Nigerians know me too well. How can I get involved in match fixing, knowingly or not? ,” he said.
“What happened was that I was discussing with an agent over a job offer in an undisclosed Australian club. The job did not eventually come through anyway.
“But I was made to understand later that the man had previously been associated with match fixing.
“Mine was just an honest discussion for job offer which never came through in the end.”
Siasia swiftly headed for the Court of Arbitration for Sports, CAS, in Lausanne, Switzerland, confident oof proving his innocence and getting the FIFA ban reversed.
But he has a huge 100, 000 Swiss Francs (about N36.4m) appeal fee to pay before his appeal could be entertained.
‘SiaOne’, as the 1994 Super Eagles World Cup star is called by his fans, was initially given until October 10, 2019 to make the payment or forget his appeal.
Unable to raise the huge amount and the deadline approached, Siasia got his lawyers to move quickly to make strong case to CAS before he was given a five-month grace.
“My lawyers made a strong appeal to CAS and now the case has been moved to March 19, 2020”, Siasia, the Nigeria’s two-time Olympic football silver medal-winning coach and 2005 FIFA U20 World Cup silver medal-winning coach explained.
“They are very strict this time around, but I’m confident we will meet the financial demands before then.”
