NFF warns coach Rohr over “contract breaches”

Gernot Rohr

Thursday Nov 28, 2019. 11:00

Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr has received a rebuke from the country’s football federation over a number of public utterances, including complaining about unpaid salaries and bonuses.

Rohr’s contract with the Nigeria Football Federation comes to an end in June 2020 and there is a public dance on the go between the two over whether it will be extended.

Both have said they would like to continue the relationship, but as the same time have been quick to point out each other’s’ faults.

And the NFF say they are dealing with the issue of outstanding monies owed, and have warned Rohr over “incessant breaches of contract” for going public.

“In as much as we appreciate the work that Mr. Rohr has been doing with the Super Eagles in the past 40 months, his recent penchant for breaching provisions of the contract he signed with the NFF and the Code of Conduct for coaches is not good for the relationship,” NFF technical director Bitrus Bewerang said in a statement.

“The NFF wishes that Mr. Rohr continues in the job because of the team he is building for Nigeria which looks promising and has earned some good results since he took charge, but he cannot continue to nonchalantly cause the NFF as a body and Nigeria as a nation, reputational damage through his utterances and actions.

“As at today, the only money that the NFF is owing Mr. Rohr is the differential in his new contract (about $30,000) which our financial advisors have to align and interface with (sponsors) AITEO before payment (as the improved contract came into effect in the last half of the year), and which process was concluded on Friday last week.

“He will soon be paid. Mr. Rohr has talked about the bonus from the 2019 Afcon, which is not contractual but discretionary on the part of the Federation. The present NFF started the policy of paying players a percentage of tournament bonus during the 2018 Fifa World Cup just to motivate them, outside their bonuses and allowances.”

We did not pay any bonus for the 2021 Afcon qualifying matches against Benin Republic and Lesotho because we are in the process of negotiating with the players on a new template of bonus payments based on performance after qualification for championships. This is still being discussed.

“The NFF is very much alive to its responsibilities but will not tolerate disrespect for the body and the country Nigeria by anyone.

“NFF can never be happy owing coaches in its employ which is the reason why the present administration took the unprecedented step of putting in place a sponsor specifically to pay coaches’ salaries.

“Last week, we paid all the national team coaches and we are putting in place a mechanism to ensure we don’t owe them going forward. We commend AITEO for its belief in the NFF and for always making funds available to pay the coaches.”

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