The Super Eagles’ camp may not be quiet and peaceful when it opens next Monday in Benin City, as a feelers heading into the beginning of preparations for this month’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Sierra Leone indicate that the players are making strong demands for the payment of bonuses they are being owed.
Megasportsarena.com gathered that the Eagles’ players, whose list of invitees for next week’s matches was released last week, are spurring for battle with Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) over outstanding monies owed them from the 2019 AFCON in Egypt.
Feelers from sources close to several of the Eagles’ players indicate that the squad is bound to be riddled with protests and boycott of training sessions if the NFF top shots do not move fast to douse the raging storm before the lads start arriving in the Edo State capital on November 9.
Although a total boycott of the forthcoming matches that had been initially advocated by the team’s alternate captain at AFCON 2019, John Ugochukwu Ogu will not come to pass, as even he has apologised for making that request in support of the EndSARS protests, another form of agitations is sure to rock the eagles’ camp next week.
this much has been concretised by reports in a section of the Nigerian media, where it has been gathered further that Nigeria’s national team players spoiling for a showdown with officials of the football governing body over an allegedly outstanding sum of $17,500 bonus being owed them each for finishing third at last year’s AFCON in Egypt.
The report adds that the players are also being owed bonuses for various other matches, among which are victories over Benin Republic and Lesotho in the 2021 AFCON qualifiers as well as appearance fees for friendlies versus Ukraine, Brazil, Algeria and Tunisia.
A source told SCORENigeria: “The boys are no longer smiling over the outstanding bonuses going back to the 2019 AFCON in Egypt. They have said their patience has run out and they will have to be paid these monies before the first match against Sierra Leone in Benin City on November 13.”
