John Shittu kicks as Siasia claims he offered €50k bribe to get Mikel into Olympics squad

John Shittu, a FIFA-licensed football agent, has denied offering €50,000 bribe to Samson Siasia for the inclusion of Mikel Obi in the Nigerian men’s football squad for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Shittu worked with Mikel for the majority of the former Super Eagles captain’s football career.

In a recent chat with Elegbete TV, Siasia claimed the football agent offered him a bribe to include Mikel in the Dream Team’s squad for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.

The former Eagles coach claimed he rejected the bribe and refused to select Mikel for the tournament because the former Chelsea midfielder failed to play during the qualification phase.

“Mikel wasn’t a starter at Chelsea then, he was on the bench,” Siasia said.

“I told him we only had one game against Ghana to play – please come and help us. I said if he doesn’t come, he won’t go anywhere. But Mikel refused to come, saying he was playing in Chelsea.

“Going to the Olympics, Mikel wants to come and play. His agent said he would give me €50,000 so Mikel should play.

“I said it’s not about €50,000. He didn’t play the qualifiers, so I will take out someone that qualified us and bring you in? It won’t happen. That’s why Mikel didn’t go.”

In a chat with TheCable on Tuesday, Shittu said Siasia has reached out to him to apologise for the comment.

Shittu added that “I am one of the most respected agents in the game” and “I don’t engage myself with damaged or inconsequential people”.

He then said “as far as I am concerned, it’s a forgotten issue”.

Nigeria won the silver medal at the men’s football event of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

In 2019, FIFA found Siasia “guilty of having accepted that he would receive bribes in relation to the manipulation of matches”.

The offence, FIFA had said, violated the federation’s code of ethics and consequently imposed a life ban from football-related activities on the multiple Olympic medalist.

The ban was also accompanied by a fine of 50,000 Swiss francs ($54,000).

However, the sanction was later reduced to a five-year ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).