Eagles insist they never agreed a million Naira for home win

by Samm Audu

Thursday Dec 29, 2016. 08:39

The last has certainly not been heard about the latest pay row involving the Super Eagles after both the players and officials insisted that there was never a meeting with the NFF where they agreed to be paid a million Naira for a home win.

The Eagles were paid a million Naira each for the home win over Algeria in a 2018 World Cup qualifier and they have since come out to allege they were shortchanged.

“There was never a meeting with the NFF where we agreed to be paid a million Naira as bonus for a home win,” one of the players maintained.

"Who were the officials at the meeting? Samson Siasia? Emmanuel Amuneke? Salisu Yusuf? Or who?

“The NFF should stop dishing out lies after lies.”

Another player admitted that they were paid a million Naira for another home win over Tanzania, but they did not agree to be paid that amount.

“I only received an alert of a million Naira for the win over Tanzania, but we never agreed to be paid that amount,” he said.

“Another thing - how do you equate an AFCON qualifier with a World Cup qualifier?

“NFF came up with a million Naira at 200 Naira a dollar. When did they become Central Bank of Nigeria to fix an exchange rate?”

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have come out to deny the Eagles were shortchanged.

An official statement quoted Eagles’ team administrator Dayo Enebi Achor.

“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.

“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.”

Achor also confirmed that for away matches, the players are entitled to the sum of $5,000 at the official rate obtaining at the time of the match.

“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,” he said.