The Central Bank of Nigeria has brought succour to the camp of the senior national team of Nigeria who were involved in a war of words over unpaid bonuses for their involvement in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
Nigeria exited the tournament at the round of 16 stage losing 0-1 to Tunisia. A result which many see as one of the upset of the tournament owing to Nigeria’s impressive results in the group stage.
Super Eagles won all of their three games in the group stage making many to tag them as favourite before the eventual collapse against Tunisia. However despite their impressive run, the players didn’t receive a penny as match allowance or winning bonus.
We gathered it triggered a huge disagreement between the players with many unhappy that Ahmed Musa and William Troost Ekong, the captain and vice captain respectively were not firm in pressing home their demands.
Their decision to accept that they won’t be paid per game until after the group stage didn’t go down well with some players, who felt with the insincerity of the NFF and the bulk of money involved it’s hard for them to clear all at once.
Each player is to be paid $30,000 aside camp allowance and some players are yet to receive the bonus for the World Cup qualifiers. As a matter of fact all through they were not paid camp allowance.
The matter snowballed into a heated debate among the players with Ekong pleading to the players to show understanding on why the NFF hasn’t paid yet. He begged that he spoke with the General Secretary who assured him that payments will be made on a particular date but that wasn’t the case.
He said he tried to get across to the president Amaju Pinnick but he didn’t take or return his call but they have earlier spoken on the issue of the bonus. He explained he later had to text him to express his disappointment.
Yesterday, the print version of Sportinglife report that apex bank in Nigeria, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) saved what would have likely resulted to the players boycotting the World Cup playoff against Ghana by crediting their account.
Each player according to Sportinglife was paid $30,000 while the backroom staff received their payments in Naira but promises made to the team by wealthy Nigerians is yet to be redeemed.
