I am not a racist – Stephen Keshi

Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi has defended his comments about Malawi coach, Tom Sainfiet denying that he is a racist.

As the war of words started in the build-up to the 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Malawi, Sainfiet is reportedly taking Keshi to FIFA, for saying that he is a “white dude that needs to go back to Belgium”

But Keshi has defended his choice of words, adding that he was only standing up for Nigeria, when Saintfiet alluded that it was unsafe to play in Calabar.

“I was just standing up for my country when someone tries to make insinuations that it is not a safe place,” Keshi was quoted as saying on supersport.com.

“I have nothing against Sainfiet, 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 Nigeria with a four year contract can all of a sudden start to describe the place as ‘unsafe’ so am not having that,” Keshi added.