Nigerian Has Received 1,000 Threats From Soccer Fans; Officials Unclear On Severity

Midfielder Sani Kaita (pictured right) was issued a red card during Nigeria’s loss last Thursday to Greece for kicking defender Vasilas Torosidis at the touchline. At the time, Nigeria was leading 1-0 in the 33rd minute. As the ball went out of bounds, Torosidis made a motion like he was going to throw the ball at Kaita, inventing new words on Facebook so as to capture the extent of Kaita’s disgrace to upholding the worst stereotypes of international soccer fans.↵↵⇥On Sunday, team spokesman Peterside Idah said the player had received “more than 1,000 threats to his email from within Nigeria” and the team were “taking these threats very seriously”.↵⇥↵⇥“There’s nothing official that’s really come out that there’s been a threat on Kaita’s life,” Idah said on Monday.↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥“It’s just rumours and his friends talking about it. There’s nothing official that we can begin to panic.↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥“In our language, if we say ‘we will kill you’, it means we are not happy with you. If a German hears ‘I will kill you’, it means you are dying next week. We really need to clear up this matter.”↵⇥

↵↵↵I’m not sure what language he’s referring to, but English is the official language of Nigeria. So far as I know, “I will kill you” means exactly that. You would think that in a country with more than 500 other recognized languages, they would appreciate a little more precision in their word use.↵

↵↵It was a poor reaction by Kaita with the kick, but you would think his countrymen would rally more to the defense of a player who was essentially victimized by a egregious flop.↵

↵↵(H/T to Out of Bounds)↵

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