NFF denies shortchanging Eagles

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has denied a report from an African football website that the Super Eagles were shortchanged as regards payment of their win bonus for the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Algeria.

The report by the African football website claimed that players and officials of the Super Eagles team have risen to allege that they did not get what was due to them.

According to the report, one of the players said, “I got a million Naira as bonus for the win over Algeria, just what I got for the win over Tanzania. I was also told that the government released the money for both the wins over Zambia and Algeria, but we were only paid for one of them.”

“The NFF informed us that we will be paid in Naira for our home games due to a new government policy, but even at that we ought to be paid more than a million Naira because the official rate of the Naira to the dollar is 305 Naira and not 200 Naira,” added another aggrieved player.

But the Eagles’ Team Administrator Dayo Enebi Achor has referred to the report as a fabrication, and that the money paid to the players was the amount earlier agreed on between the players and the football federation.

“That report is a fabrication. The estimate we sent to the Government was for the sum of N1million for each player for a win. Nobody has been shortchanged,” Achor said to thenff.com

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“Sometimes in March this year, the NFF held a meeting with some technical crew members, team captain and vice-captain, on behalf of the team, and told them to open bank accounts (in Nigeria) as the Federation was no longer disposed to paying cash. It was also at that meeting that the NFF told them they would no longer be paid in dollars for home matches, and that the win bonus for home match was a flat rate of N1million. The meeting took place at the team’s hotel in Kaduna and I was present at the meeting.

“It was based on this that the players were paid the sum of N500,000 each for the draw against Egypt in Kaduna (2017 Cup of Nations qualifier, March 2016) and the sum of N1million each for the win against Tanzania in Uyo (2017 Cup of Nations qualifier, September 2016). Their camp allowance has also been paid in naira (N50,000 per day) since March 2016,” he stated.

Contrary to the assumptions of the report, the Team Administrator also clarified that the players are entitled to the sum of $5,000 for away matches only, and they will be paid at the rate obtainable at the time the match was played.

“The NFF has not shortchanged the players. The match against Algeria was a home match. Whenever the win bonus for the match against Zambia in Ndola is being paid, it would be $5,000 per player at the official rate that obtained at the time the match was played,” Achor concluded.

 

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