Super Eagles protest $2,500 per man bonus

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 Nigeriainfo 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of the 2014 Championship of African Nations (CHAN) for players in the local league because of poor finances before they rescinded this decision

Vanguard