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| Eagles Chief Coach Keshi |
Confederations Cup-bound Super Eagles have refused to take a
$2,500-a-man bonus for Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Namibia in Windhoek. It was learnt that they want to be paid the full win bonus of $5,000 each.
The African champions failed to fly to South Africa from Namibia
Thursday due to a row over win bonus for a World Cup qualifier as they
were all held up in their hotel rooms in Namibia an hour to departure to
Johannesburg. They were to have boarded South Africa Airways flight SA075 Thursday
morning from Namibia to Johannesburg, but a correspondent of Nigeria info
FM Lagos, Arafat Aliu, who was also on the same flight, informed that
they did not turn up.
“The team are not on board. All the seats in business class are empty,” Arafat said. “Rather other passengers on this flight have been asking me when the players will board.”
The Super Eagles ought to have flown out of Windhoek to Johannesburg
on Thursday afternoon, and be on their way to Sao Paulo, Brazil, minutes
before 6pm South African time. And they would have been in Sao Paulo by midnight and connect
immediately to Belo Horizonte, venue of their opening match of the FIFA
Confederations Cup against Tahiti on Monday.
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President Aminu Maigari met with
the team Wednesday night to explain to them that the organisation is
broke and so the need to be prudent in their spendings.
Media reports had also suggested there was a players’ revolt in Kenya over pay when the Eagles beat the home team last week.
The players wanted to be paid $10,000 each for the win in Nairobi.
Top officials had flatly denied this row.
Cash-strapped NFF have been forced to cut back on the backroom staff
of the various national teams including the Super Eagles after a very
expensive AFCON campaign in South Africa.
They had even mulled the idea of pulling out of the 2014 Championship
of African Nations (CHAN) for players in the local league because of
poor finances before they rescinded this decision.
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