Super Eagles handler to the Korea/Japan
2002 FIFA World Cup, Chief Adegboye
Onigbinde, has claimed that his untouchable
defender, Taribo West, sabotaged the team’s
aspiration to do well in the competition by
deliberately allowing opposing teams to
score goals against the Nigerian team.
Onigbinde, revealed to Newtelegraph
that, inviting the likes of Taribo, Jay Jay
Okocha, Kanu Nwankwo and other Eagles
stars from the disbanded Mali 2002 Nations
Cup team was a big mistake.
He said, “Soon after the collapse of the
Super Eagles team at the Mali 2002
Nations Cup, I was with the then Sports
Minister, late Ishaya Mark Aku, in Abuja,
when one of his aides brought a security
report from the department of State
Service, SSS, which the minister gave me
to read.
It states that, “The disbanded Eagles
players had agreed that, if the new Eagles
coach should invite some of the players
and not all of them for the World Cup,
none of them would honour the
invitation.
“Five minutes later, another security
report came, and it reads, if any member
of the Mali 2002 squad is invited to the
World Cup 2002 team, such would be
coming to sabotage the team.”
According to the former coach, he left all
the disbanded stars out of the new Eagles
initially for all the seven pre-World Cup
friendly matches played, out of which his
boys predominantly home-based stars,
won five.
“It was when we played our last friendly
game in England that I invited four
players from the disbanded team; Taribo
West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha
and Ike Shorunmu.

The four players blended with the team
during the preparations until we got to
the World Cup proper.
“The other three players stood neutral
while Taribo West acted as the saboteur
and he sabotaged the team in two crucial
group games against Argentina and
Sweden.
“In the match against Argentina, Taribo
deliberately stood flat footed and never
jumped to contest the ball from a corner
kick to allow Gabriel Bastituta to score
Argentina’s only goal of the match to beat
Nigeria 1-0.
“If the match had ended in a draw,
Nigeria would have had the chance to
qualify for the next round of the
competition and subsequently move to the
finals of the competition.
“The second one was against Sweden,
when Taribo left Henrik Larsson
unmarked to score a goal. In that same
match, the penalty foul Taribo committed
against Henrik Larsson was also
deliberate; he kicked the Swede without
justification when he had the opportunity
to clear the ball into safety.
“So in all, he gave out three solid goals
that sent Nigeria out of the 2002 World
Cup. When these happened I remembered
the security report.”

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