The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is keen to avoid another Super Eagles boycott ahead of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches.
The football house is working round the clock to clear an 18-month backlogg of bonuses and allowances.
A planned protest by the players last month, ahead of their 2021 AFCON away fixture, backfired after they let a 4-0 lead slip as Sierra Leone fought back to draw 4-4 at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City.
“Our initial plan was to address it before the game in Sierra Leone but we all saw what happened,” one player told BBC Sport Africa as he insisted on anonymity.
“I don’t think they [NFF officials] can keep quiet if they’re unpaid by their bosses. They’re quick to blame the players for defeats but happy to celebrate the success of the team.
“If the players go on strike they blame us for being money hungry and selfish yet this is money they owe us.
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“There are [training] camp allowances and match bonuses not paid to us and the technical crew since July 2019 and that’s not good.”
The financially stricken NFF, which receives direct funding from the government, is keen to resolve the pay issue dating back to the continental showpiece event in Egypt last year.
NFF president Amaju Pinnick, who has been forced to seek financial help from sponsors to cater for the various national teams on international assignments, acknowledged the debt to players and coaching staff, but says he is hopeful they will get paid soon.
“We are working with the government very seriously in assuring that it [money] comes out within the next few weeks,” Pinnick told BBC Sport Africa.
“It’s been tough financially for us and we’ve had to depend on support from our sponsors in the last four matches.
“I personally understand the players should be paid what they are owed because we’ve always ensure prompt payment in the past.
“They’ve shown remarkable professionalism, if they can just bear with us, this is something I am hoping to resolve as soon as possible.”
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Another player said the issue should have been sorted earlier and revealed that some players felt frustrated and unappreciated.
“NFF officials continue to ignore the players. Some players who played at the Nations Cup are no longer here and those players are also asking questions about the payments,” the Europe-based player said.
“First they said we will get it, then they blamed the pandemic for their inability to pay but it’s untrue. They want us to forget this money but that’s unprofessionally heartless and wicked on their part.”
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COMMENTS
This is bad…
I think those that say NFF has never owed Genort Rhor and his team any dime can continue from here.
18 months? Haha Nigeria is callous and you want Tammy Abraham, Saka, Eze to join the trend.
I think the leadership of this country needs to wash her head.
And some people say Genort Rhor is there because some people called him to be able to share his money bla, bla ,bla.
From today we Nigerian soccer fan should just start praying for Genort Rhor.
I am a doctor is a hospital in Nigeria, we have gone on strike on 3 occasions because of salary, but what will the populace say? Doctors don’t have passion for their work anymore, they are wicked, all they want is money.
As I am talking to you, we are back at work but we are still owed 3 months salaries. The question is who cares for the doctors need when he needs money, do the market woman sell things for him free, we have wives and children, who feeds them.
Nigerians know how to blame the victim which is bad. Now if these players decide not to play, they will blame them for lack of patriotism, some will even say they don’t deserved to be paid, that putting on the green white green Jersey is enough.
Nigerians let appreciate our heros and fight the villain who disrupt our society. How can you not pay bonus for 18 months, Oga pinnick I think your salary should also be stopped for 2 years before you can start saying you know how they feel.
This is bad.
What baffles me is how come smaller countries that are not anywhere close to Nigeria in terms of wealth managing to satisfy these requirements while Nigeria is every day failing? I WEEP FOR MY BELOVED COUNTRY NIGERIA, BEING EATING UP BY SATANS IN VIRTUALLY EVERY SEAT OF POWER.
my brother ,which kind wealth person or father have and can not show on his wife or kids,Nigeria talking about this or that ,GDP etc and can not show on the people ,shame to the president ,governors,senators,chairman etc they all high way robbers feeding on our national budget that belongs to people of Nigeria.
But wait o! Can’t they use the palliative money FIFA gave us to settle this boys and save us this shame????
What are they keeping that money for????
Also thinking the same, NFf received. 1 Million dollars from FIFA, in october as Covid-19 palative, So how come they are still broke.
Now u would never see @Omo9ja and his cohort commenting….
They’ve all gone into hiding….
When it’s time to criticise ROHR, they come out in numbers and spew all kinds of rubbish against an innocent foreigner as if they would never travel to a foreign land one day…..
Please, say something different. Is this post about Rohr or about the deficiency of NFF to foot their liabilities? Yes, we complained about the tactics of Rohr but this particular post is not about him. What are we castigating Rohr for? Is he responsible for the payment? Blame Pinnick and your Nigerian govt. Give praise and blame when it is due. You don’t dish out blame just for shaming purposes.
Hehehehehe! I laugh Kikuyu-cally.
No future focus NFF dey run things ooo. Na dem biko!
See as all of them rushed out like headless chickens after the 4-4 draw with S/L to condemn Rohr and the players. They conveniently ignored 18 months of unpaid entitlements. Not to mention the weed-infested nonsense of a pitch the boys had to play on.
Corruption and incompetence is going to be our finish in this country.
Where crocodile no dey, we go manage agama lizard!
It is now getting more and more obvious by the day how fortunate we are to have someone like Rohr, who is delivering good results in the midst of all this chaos!
Rohr is not good, Rohr is not tactical, Rohr is not energetic, and so on.
Given the chaotic and confused environment Rohr has had to work in, what the SE have achieved to date is nothing short of miraculous.
When the underlying issues disturbing our football are resolved, then we will be in a better position to assess Rohr.
And this nonsense of including 4 home based players in the SE, without regard to merit? I refused to believe it at first. But the trust I initially had has been almost completely eroded. They want to share the bonuses with the players. That is what all the hullabaloo is about! They can’t share with the foreign based, so they want to bring in hungry home based players that will do whatever they want! The more homebased players in the team, the sweeter the deal!
Where is all the money we got from FIFA for participating in the world cup 2018? Did we not get anything from our Afcon bronze medal? How is it that the NFF is perpetually struggling financially? How can team bonuses be in arrears for 18 months? 18 WHOLE MONTHS!
And yet, we want Rohr and the players to win Afcon 2021 and world cup 2022 🙂 🙂
This is the worst news I have ever heard in football. Jeez!!!
This is really preposterous. You are owing them but you still had the mouth to lambast them when they drew with SL. This is morally wrong.
No wonder we are finding it hard to convince Eze and Co, because stories of this nature usually go farther than anybody can imagine
For those who are yet to watch Olayinka in action you can catch him @AFCON TV. Slavia Prague vs Leverkusen can be seen here
https://www.facebook.com/AFCON-TV-108522201114518/
They are being owed 18 months and counting. That’s complete one year and seven months?! This is wickedness!! And yet some idiots would just surface from no where and begin to spew garbage from their dirty corrupt stomachs that store nothing but evil. We can clearly see the reason behind the shocking result we got lately. Can odegbami and his evil cohorts come out and tell us why on earth a team should be owed more than a year’s salary and yet still expect them to get results (which they have been doing). This is insanity of the highest order! The coach who pays his 2 or 3 assistants (with a dead currency that has no value) from the peanuts given to him is on the same boat as the rest of the team and one stupid idiot who calls himself a minister would come out and be spewing garbage without trying to find ways to addressing the root cause of the problem. They (omo9ja and their regressive group members) have gone mute and you’d never see them here to comment bcs the truth is out in the open again for all to see. Na so God go dy judge una one by one. Wicked idiots.!
Just imaging that! Clueless Omo9ja is on sabbatical leave on topic like this, because they are hypocrites. How can you blame Rohr and the players? No wonder they need hungry home base. Home base players will swallow their rotten garbage without talking.
So shameful!
I wonder what technical issues that can be compared to this.Players and coaches are being owed and Dare comes out to say that so that there are technical issues need to be resolved in the SE.Pay them their bonuses and see if Benin and Lesotho will not be thrashed.
The way the Sports Minister was lambasting the Super Eagles I thought they had been paid. So who ate the players money?
Good question. Who ate the players money ??? I can see Amaju blueprint everywhere. No wonder he donate mini stadium to camouflage. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. God go open dem yanch. Oleburuku
Where are rohr haters? “Sack Rohr!,” they say. “Rohr has lost touch with modern football” they say. But the most annoying – “rohr has not achieved anything!” Lolz. So in Nigeria bronze medal isn’t an achievement, but qualifying for common u20 afcon is war. They complain Rohr has been building super eagles for five years, now you can see why. Do you have any idea of what it takes to raise a team from total shambles and exalt it to prominence? It takes time! Rohr, of all coaches, has justified that time! Think about it, with all the challenges at his door steps. Working with NFF alone can crumble the spirit of any coach. The team that failed to qualify for afcon back to back does it now with games to spare. All because Rohr came. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Nigerians have a default system in them that makes them reject anything good, just to succumb to the bad. It’s like we have a fear against progress, that’s why we kicked Jonathan out after four years just to put buhari for 8 years. It is well. But none would admit that incentives matters, and salary is a big kind. Asuu went on strike for unpaid 8 months salary. Rohr and the players are owed 18 months! Where’s the Dare that knows queen english? Where are those ex-internationals that have sold their integrity for greed? All have gone into hiding.
Rohr has never been our problem from beginning – No Future Focus (nff) have. Was it Rohr that coached the u20? And here we are already “hopefully” waiting for Ghana to bail us out. When last has did we find super eagles in such a situation? Now here we are, eagerly waiting for the results of our opponents to determine our fate? Even in the lost to Madagascar at afcon we’ve already qualified. Ever since rohr came our destiny has always been in our own hands.
Anyway, for those that are against the home based quota, balogun just scored again ooo. I watched Iheanacho and to be frank, I wasn’t impressed. Though he’s playing regularly in some way but I’m not seeing progress. In my opinion, here’s our choice of strikers ahead of Benin: osimhen, Iheanacho, Sadiq and awoniyi (in hierarchy). My reasons are simple: osimhen is obviously top 9. Iheanacho qualities becomes exceptional when he plays as second striker. I’m not in favour of using 433 formation. Our wingers rarely score, that makes the responsibility for goals heavy on the lone striker, in this case osimhen. This is where the 352 formation becomes important. With Iheanacho and osimhen up front, we can be certain for a bountiful harvest of goals. One of the problems of Iheanacho in the last two europa games was meeting end balls. The guy is best at building up play in the final third. That’s why I think him and osimhen will work out well. For sadiq, he’s got to keep scoring. Sadiq is a complete striker with an exciting style of play. His agility and dribbling is second to none in our strikers department. The Spain segunda is a little bit better than the Belgium league (if not equal), that’s why if Sadiq can score goals as onuachu is doing then there’s no way he won’t get on the squad list. Taiwo awoniyi will be on standby list along with onuachu. Taiwo is already playing at a top league, consistency is what he needs (and I mean consistency with his finishing, not the 1 goal out of 7 shots type). What about Musa? That’s for Rohr to decide, cos me I don’t know (though Musa has not been bad). And hurray! Ndidi is back! Let the victories begin!!!
Super Eagles all the best!
Nice one Kingston. Omo 9ja and his cohorts have gone into hiding ever since this this story was published.
We are here like everyone else. We will continue to insist that Rohr, as a Nigeria National
coach, can not lead Super Eagle to the promise land. The FIFA rating is sliding. The Nation may not qualify for the AFCON in Cameroon if Rohr is allowed to continue, pay or not paid.
l don not come to this conclusion to offset you or anyone else. l am just expressing my candid opinion. l am really happy to see Joshua knocked out Pulve tonight in London.
With all the US dollar that NFF have collected from FIFA, if these huge funds were not diverted for personal use, they would not have problems paying bonus and meet their obligations to those who
laid the golden eggs. These NFF guys are thieves. You can all see how they have develop POT belly in a Country that is having famine in the land. Rohr deserves to get paid every kobo owned to him.
Have a Blessed Sunday my fellow Country folks.
This is why I love you so much Edoman. I can’t stop loving you my friend.
I have said it severally on here that don’t put your trust in Oga Pinnck because bn a former politician won’t help the team.
Very tricky and bossy. That kind of attitude is not good for a leader that people looking up to.
Oakfield is not thinking that way at all. All he’s really concerned about is Oga Rohr.
He doesn’t care if Super Eagles played good football and well being of the team.
FIFA paid a huge amount of money that NFF would have paid off the bill of the Super Eagles team but they cares more about their pockets rather the national teams.
Edoman my lovely friend, you have changed your thoughts after Leone star match against Nigeria.
You now seeing what we patriotic Nigerians are seeing which is very encouraging. I hope this Oakfield will have a rethink one day too.
Even Sean said it openly here that we patriotic Nigerians are doing so well and he wouldn’t hesitate to speaks the truth for the betterment of our dear country Nigeria.
NFF president should be warned. His days are numbered as the NFF president. Well, what do I know. Truth is bitter. God bless Nigeria!!!
@Edoman and Omo9ja … Before talking about if Rohr can lead SE to the promise land or not , The question here is can any coach both local and foreign lead any team to the promise land , if they are owed for 18 months ?
Can you EDOMAN and OMO9ja work without pay for 18 months and still lead the organization to the promise land ? . ( Keyword : You are aware of this same organization earning millions )
I’m sure no coach in this world both LOCAL and FOREIGN can work with NFF and lead the team to the promise land , If NFF can’t get their act together and stop owing debt to every single coach .
There’s no promise land for the SE under any coach both local and foreign with the rubbish administration we have in NIGERIA . It’s time people start being honest and stop dreaming of any promise land with the zero administration in NIGERIA .
God bless Nigeria
God bless you bro @nametalkam…bro e be like say na you dey comment on Nairaland?
Abeg Edoman, tell me which competition Rohr has not qualified us for with ease. Even this current one, all we need is 1 point from the remaining 2 matches to qualify. Are you saying we are likely to lose to both Benin & Lesotho? Do you actually believe that or are to you just saying these things to back your argument?
Who will want to play and win for Nigeria when they hear that the country does not pay its players? The Sports Minister says that football is now big business. True. Is that how to run a business by not paying workers?
EMMANUEL AMUNEKE READY TO WORK AS ASSISTANT TO GERNOT ROHR in a telephone chat with TIKITAKA a radio program presented in ibadan by fm 99.1 this morning,the former nigeria international expressed his willingness to take up the job of an assistant coach of the super eagles anytime the opportunity comes,he wondered where the earlier report that he DECLINED the offer emanated from…..nigeria journalists are something else with unfounded nd bogus news
@Lanre.
If this ur news is true then AMUNIEK has just won my heart. I pray he succeeds…..
This is the way forward.
Nigerians lack “man management” that is why u see boss always having issues with their employees.
Nff having issues with players & their coaches why bcos they don’t know that “where man dey work na there him dey chop”.
Our coaches(indigens) always fail in this area of man management, so if at the end of the day Amunike can only learn this skill from oga Rohr (since his haters says he is an average out-dated coach with no tactics even when it is evidently clear that he’s the only S.E coach with the highest win ratio), i think this will go a long way in helping him to manage our boys for atleast 3-5 years if NFF would repent.
2ndly; Amunike can also learn how to work under “unconducive working environment” & still deliver just like what oga Rohr is doing presently.
Amunike u are welcome.
Our future S.E “technical guru”….
@UBFE the ex international called in from his base in spain to confirm his readiness to accept the role of an assistant coach if the nff considered him suitable for the job but confessed that he had not been contacted on it
Guys, please I hope you won’t mind, I will be using some comments you guys have made in the AFCON TV page. I will be referencing completesports as the source of the comments and attributing the comments used to the persons who made them. The sole reason for creating the AFCON TV page was to provide a plat form where we can watch our darling teams together as a community of soccer fans and share ideas about the game as well as provide a way of holding people in position of leadership with regards to sports and soccer especially accountable. I have combed through comments here and I can categorically say that 99.99% of fans here blame the sports ministry and NFF (both past and present) for the sick state of sports and soccer in the country. I believe if we use the same gusto we use in debating each other here but aim it at people messing with the only thing that brings joy to millions of people, we can really effect change. These leaders know we are not united and don’t speak with one voice, hence they can do anything they like and not be held accountable.
We should have a platform where fans drive the discussions not some agents or journalist who is only looking to enrich themselves. The good thing is with Facebook you can have a debate with over 50 people on video discussing issues and the reach is enormous. The platform is for real football men and women, soccer new by fans for fans. We drive the conversation. I can categorically say that you guys here are the most intelligent and articulate individuals I have come across in any soccer forum devoid of insults tho. Your knowledge of the round leather game is unrivaled, so why fight amongst ourselves when deep down we know the problem. Just a thought. If you need to reach me my email is [email protected], I really hope this doesn’t fall on deaf ears.
Way to go… @Proudly 9ja bigups.
A poor country like Nigeria should cut its coat according to its cloth. Let’s use only cheap, home-based players and coaches and face the consequences
Lets see how many home based players will remain so after the same home based player gets 1 or 2 caps for Super Eagle. There is a common saying ” The only good players are those playing outside the shores”
Proudly 9ja, thumbs up bro, nice one.