Super Eagles have accused the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) of complicity in the nonpayment of their match allowances and bonuses accrued in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) championship in Cameroon.
The Nigeria senior men’s football team in Group D won all their three matches before losing 1-0 to the North African side, Tunisia, in the Round of 16. However, five months after the continental event where Senegal won Egypt in the final on penalty shootouts, the Super Eagles are yet to be paid by the leadership of the na-tion’s football governing body.
According to a report being circulated on a media platform, some players, who pleaded anonymity, told Thenewsguru about the Super Eagles’ predicaments. The players lamented that their plea through the team’s secretary, Dayo Enebi, to the Glass House never yielded fruitful results instead NFF informed them they will be credited individually by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
In their statements, they noted after the country’s AFCON campaign in Garoua, Came-roon, the team’s secretary ask for their account numbers with an assurance that they will be credited. “After the loss to Tunisia in Garoua, the team secretary collected our account details and assured us that our match bonuses and allowances will be paid directly into our accounts,” the sources said.
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These sources added that it is the usual practice that has been used before now but the delay experienced this time around calls for concern. “That has always been the practice so it wasn’t strange to any of us. It is five months since AFCON and we are yet to get any alert. “We have made frantic efforts to know where our money is and all they keep telling us is that the money will be paid soon,” they complained.
Moreover, the troubled Super Eagles’ players, banking on the assurances given from the Glass House, have waited patiently but that has begun to diminish because they now feel otherwise after they got the hint that some of their colleagues have been cred-ited. They continued: “We don’t know when that will be and our patience is waning.
That is because we are beginning to suspect foul play since most of our colleagues have received their full entitlements. “We have decided at this point to petition the Honorable Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare, on this matter because it is now obvious that someone is sitting on our money,” they added.
The news guru added that all the four players have been invited for post-AFCON matches involving the Super Eagles and have vowed not to stop honouring national team invitations while stressing that they will not rest until their outstanding match bonuses and allowances are paid.
