Shittu dismissed the claim, saying Siasia had already apologised to him. “I am one of the most respected agents in the game,” he said.
John Shittu, a FIFA-licensed agent, has denied claims he offered Samson Siasia a €50,000 bribe to include Mikel Obi in Nigeria’s men’s football squad for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Siasia told Elegbete TV that Shittu tried to pay for Mikel’s inclusion despite the player skipping qualifiers. “Mikel wasn’t a starter at Chelsea then… His agent said he would give me €50,000 so Mikel should play,” Siasia alleged.
But speaking to TheCable, Shittu dismissed the claim, saying Siasia had already apologised to him. “I am one of the most respected agents in the game,” he said. “I don’t engage myself with damaged or inconsequential people… as far as I am concerned, it’s a forgotten issue.”
Nigeria went on to win silver in Beijing.
Notably, Siasia was banned by FIFA in 2019 for accepting bribes to fix matches, a life sanction later reduced to five years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.