FIFA World Cup Play Off: NSC, NFF in Morocco to settle Super Eagles players bonuses
By Uzor Odigbo
The National Sports Commission (NSC) chieftains landed in Rabat, Morocco to restore normalcy in the camp of Super Eagles in Morocco after the players had boycotted training over outstanding bonuses.
The NSC chieftain we learnt disbursed the owed money to the players directly and the administrative balance to the NFF
This is contrary to some media reports that the NSC has released ₦1billion to the Nigeria Football Federation for the prosecution and payments of allowances and bonuses to Super Eagles players and officials.
Official sources of the NSC confirmed that money was approved for the NFF to pay outstanding money due to the players and to prosecute the world cup playoffs in Rabat adding that the money only reached the team and the NFF today
“What we know is that an approval of ₦1Billion was given to the NFF for the playoffs and before the money was released, the media space was already awash that the NFF had been given the money before the team converged in Morocco
“The NSC and the NFF met with players and have been able to reconcile and the players are ready to go. The one training session they missed will not affect their performance on Thursday, I can assure you. The boys want to go to the world and will give it all their best to emerge as CAF representatives for the intercontinental playoffs,” a chieftain of the NSC disclosed
Investigation into the reason why the players boycotted training revealed that they wanted to be told when they will be paid their AFCON and world cup qualifiers bonuses and allowances and when nothing positive was forthcoming, they decided to strike
We also learnt that the NFF and the team leadership had in an earlier meeting witnessed by the former Sports minister, Enoh came to an agreement on the outstanding owed since 2019 and that was settled since last year
Recall that the NFF applied for an additional ₦5 billion to compliment the ₦12 billion released by the federal government for last year’s AFCON.
The additional request was used to clear all outstanding debts owed the players, hoteliers and Airlines.
