Super Eagles captain William Troost-Ekong has debunked reports that the players have demanded a special bonus for the 2026 FIFA World Cup playoffs, reports Completesports.com .
The players boycotted training in Rabat, Morocco on Tuesday to demand payment of their outstanding bonuses and allowances.
Troost-Ekong, and his teammates released a statement stating reason for their action : “The full squad including officials boycotted training today in Morocco because of the unresolved issues with outstanding payments.
“The Super Eagles are awaiting a quick resolution to continue the preparation for Thursday’s game with Gabon.”
Read Also:2026 WCQ Playoffs: Super Eagles Boycott Training Over Unpaid Bonuses
The centre-back debunked speculations that the players are holding the country to ransom by asking to be paid a special bonus.
“Any other statement/claim especially demands other than the rightful request written below (an X post clearly reporting that the players demand payment of outstanding bonuses) are FALSE,” Troost-Ekong posted on X.
The Super Eagles are reportedly demanding for the payment of outstanding bonuses running several years.
Éric Chelle’s side are scheduled to take on the Panthers of Gabon in the semi-final of the playoffs at the Prince Héritier Moulay El Hassan Sports Complex, Rabat on Thursday.
By Adeboye Amosu
25 Comments
Oh! I remember back in days when players out of their little earnings from club side come to national team and still play not just their heart out but their life out without thinking of bonus… Players like their taribo west playing with blood dripping down his forehead….smh….
But nowadays you have unpatriotic, uncommitted bunch like victor Osimhen insulting a d disrespecting ex players, coaches and pundits like legendary finidi and victor ikpeba and then always coming to camp late and still demanding special bonuses….smh…..
Mokey yaish and all de rest –
Sharap! Some of you are just too stoopid!
Did all of you running your mouths know everythings about what is really going on/ Will any of you mugus go to work for a whole week and they turn around and say you are not getting paid and yuh wii stii be happy?? Did any of yuh wereys know if they are doing this in solidarity and support for their coach? These boys are not so poor to be waiting for money from NFF to run their lives, but stii what is due is due under any circumstance, but turn on wuna brains and reason dat maybe de boys are supporting somebody like Chelle who is not going to be as financially resilient as them and not being paid for many years wii affect hin more dan de boys, so they are doing dis to support and help de coache so that he can get hin money sharply – abeg mek wuna dey tink naa!
With their very huge salaries in club side especially that osimhen and coming very late to camp (just yesterday night) he still has the guts to be asking for bonus…..
But notwithstanding, the nff must do the needful….pay them…it is their right….
They owe you just as they owe doctors and ASUU which is regretable. This shows and confirms that we have wicked bureaucrats running the country.
Butt going on strike at this time is ill timed.
The world cup appearance was so important for Abedi Pele that he chartered a flight to convey his black stars for a world cup qualifier in 1992/93. With the exception of Osimhen, none of your cahoots comes close to Abedi Pele.
Shame!
Final conclusion is that it is becoming clearer that this WCQ campaign is under sports betting. It is like some people will cash out big time when Nigeria fails to qualify.
All through the series, just look at the obvious sabotage acts and lacklustre attitude.
It is only your goalkeeper who for now had been caught and suspended luckily for just two months.
Just like in Turkey, many other actors who are guilty will soon come out.
By now se players should know that abandoning training for bonuses unpaid is bad signal.
How can they allow distraction of such at crucial time.
Well it is their money, they are free to protest, but should this affect your performance tomorrow, ho se players non of you will escape my hanger.
Do this not for nff, but please do this for we fans.
Well said @Wike.
This is absolutely shameFull!!! anybody supporting these boys for this embaraasing and disgraceful act is as shameful as them. first of all there are millions of poor Nigerians some of whom do not see food to eat some days, super Eagles is the only thing that brings them joy once in a while and these ungrateful brats who do not even need the money and where given some lucky chance to be in the play offs that they did not even deserve or earn, chose now to demand money?, before they train 2 days before what is suppose to be the game of their lives. and Social media warriors will be supporting them. This is sad. Ekong who should even thank his lucky stars that he is there as he is the main catalyst for our failure to qualify with his shambolic defending against Zimbabwe and Own goal against South Africa is spearheading this when he should be more mature than that. I do not blame him after all WC will do nothing for his already failed Club Career. It is Players like Benjamin Fredericks i feel for Whom WC would defeinitely have done his Career a massive boost. But hey if even Fredericks cannot see that then I do not know again, I mean these brats are use to watching big WC tournaments on their TV sets as the competition is for Quality players not average sets of greedy pigs, with ZERO patriotism. If they won’t do it for NFF why not for Nigerians as for me people like this should not be representing their country.
NIGERIA DO NOT DESERVE TO BE AT WORLD CUP ESPECIALLY THIS UNGRATEFUL BUNCH OF INGRATES!!!. GABON DESERVE THE SPOT NOT THESE BUNCH OF TALENTLESS FOOLS. AFTER ALL THEY ARE USED TO WATCHING WC ON THEIR TV SETS. NFF AS USELESS AS YOU ARE DO NOT PAY THEM LET THEM FAIL TO QUALIFY AFTER THAT ALL OF WUNA BOTH THESE CURRENT SET OF PLAYERS AND GUASAU ADMIN SHOULD PACK AND LEAVE NIGERIAN FOOTBALL. WHAT RUBBISH!!!!!!!
That’s where we always got it wrong, park and leave shd be park and go to jail, if we continue letting them park and leave then what’s the essence? The next admin will do same shit and feel like after all they won’t do me shit.
THIS EKONG IS SO ANNOYING THE AUDACITY OF MR OWN GOAL AKA THE NEW “CALAMITY EKONG” STILL HAS THE NERVE TO TALK!!!! WONDERS SHALL NEVER END!!!!!.
@Ugo I disagree with you on this subject. Whether they need the money or not is theirs to decide. They’ve earned it so it should be paid to them. They are the ones leaving their families, waking up early to jog and train, putting themselves and means of livelihood on the line so they should be paid. Timing is wrong, but strategic. I heard they forfeited the over 6 yrs bonus owed to them last year to start on a clean slate and even at that the NFF is owing them for 2 yrs.
I kinda understand where Nigerians are coming from…the mindset and all. If I were in Nigeria I’d probably would have been thinking the same way “How much is it?” “it’s a drop compared to what they earn abroad”.. That’s the mentality of ppl who haven’t struggled to work…not to talk of getting paid.
I hope they qualify, but I won’t be mad if they don’t. Because everyone, including the former players, deserve to be paid.
@Onwajunior I hope you are not taking a swipe at me we all work and get paid that aside. The World Cup should be the bigger price than some measly naira if some of these players make the world cup (I.e. Benjamin Frederick’s for instance like I mentioned above)and have a good tournament what he stands to gain and the contract he may attract from a bigger club what is this bonus they are asking for compared to the weekly wage he will gain? Not just what will that do for the image and bragging rights of Nigeria? The problem with Nigerians the essence and importance has been lost over the years due to Social media and mediocrity i mean you have a second chance to go to the World Cup THE WORLD CUP the biggest bragging rights in football and they are here boycotting training. Na wa oo. Anyway the ones spearheading this have nothing to gain as World cup or no World cup thier mediocre careers are set in stone and, age is not on their side (another reason why for their careers bonus should not be the aim) after all what is a career as a footballer if you have not played World cup or Champions league as most on our rooster have not. On the flip side Gabon SA and any other African country that makes the world cup will surpass Nigeria in the short and long term so @Onwarjunior keep supporting this shame after you people have become so accustomed to mediocrity i do not blame you.
P.s. you said they forfeited 6years bonus just last year so if only a year has passed since then where does this 2years bonus come from. You see even you are not making sense just like this their boycott isn’t.
For Me Gabon should go to World Cup,as their current set seems more serious and determined
Nah bro…not taking a swipe at you in anyway. I disagreed with your position. Regarding supporting the shame and being accustomed to mediocrity, I think the mediocrity here is NFF not paying players, coaches and backroom staff for years. Other countries hardly have these issues. So the NFF is the one bringing shame to the country. On the other hand, the players are displaying courage, just like Lt. Yerima did to Wike.
I mentioned 6 yrs in error, it was 5 yrs. Again I said I heard, but I’ll break it down a bit. They agreed to forfeit their unpaid bonuses before Afcon qualifiers early last year, the team played Afcon qualifiers last year and this year continued World Cup qualifier so for 2024 (Afcon qualifiers) and 2025 (every other match including wc qualifiers), they’ve not been paid.
Demanding for what is rightfully yours shouldn’t be seen as unpatriotic, pls. There is Fifa Forward funds to support national FAs and if we can’t execute match bonuses from such funds, what exactly does the FA do with the money?
Let’s be mundful of the fact that the payment demanded by the players are outstanding allowances dating as far back as 2-3 years. They should be held accountable rather than blaming the players.
We are quick to shower millions on winning teams but ignore the important aspect of preparing teams by honouring basic rights of players.
Pay them what you owe them to avoid unnecessary distraction that could be used as excuse for failure.
Why is accountability an issue with every facet of management in Nigeria?
With all due respect, we should hold nff responsible if we failed to make it to final intercontinental playoff. Some people are talking about dedication. Are these people dedicated to our own needs and welfare. The answer is NO. These players worked and laboured for this money and allowances and they must be paid based on agreements, let’s leave sentiments, that they are rich and soon. Is all our leaders not rich and they still steal from us. If anything happened to them, the so call nff will abandon them, that’s the truth.
Besides, how many of these nff officials are being owned their allowances and the estacode, when they travel with the National teams. It’s because of the allowances you see all of them lobbying to be part of the contingent. You received your own money and try to post the players. If the nff are truthful to themselves, why lying against the players that what they are asking for is special bonus. Look at that, trying to cover up.
Infact I’m pained with all these nonsense and it’s high time we start getting it right with the round peg in a round hole. This is my conclusion
This is bad.
While I empathize with the players, I also think Ekong should do better. He already has a bad PR with a section of the fanbase, and this??? This never happened with Ahmed Musa.
Besides, the situation puts more pressure on the players, and God forbid, if they slip up between tomorrow and Sunday, the backlash from the fans would be extreme. So, how about shifting this standoff until Sunday?
At the moment, the players, led (rather than being managed and pacified) by Ekong, are taking a huge risk where they cannot afford to make a mistake. They’ll be shocked at the level of about-turn the fans would make and momentarily forget the sins of the NFF. There’ll be calls for disbandment, and the NFF will get the backing of the fans to blacklist some players, starting with the captain.
So Ekong, yes, make una protest o, but make sure to be perfect tomorrow and Sunday. Cos, tbh, how much are these monies really to you guys??? You deserve it, sure, but waiting a week or 2 to get it won’t hurt your bank accounts.
Boycotting Tuesday’s training and possibly today’s will have a negative return on our boys and hand Gabon a team with serious FA and good preparations advantage going into the match on Thursday.
The boys think the best time to make a success of their demands is at a time like this we have to play a game to determine our world cup hopes,it’s well planned and timely executed but what will happen should we fail to beat Gabon on Thursday?
All of una wey dey curse these guys dey craze and you all are part of the problem of Nigeria, encouraging and abetting incompetence, corruption, ineptitude and anyhowness.
All you lots that are blaming the boys, tell me one act of sacrifice you have done for the country. These boys sacrifice their career and places in their clubs to represent the country and what do they get in return – insults and shabby treatments from NFF and ingrates like you.
Shame on you all
It’s easy for some of us fans to sit behind keyboards to criticize these players, but none of us dare put ourselves in their shoes. We should understand that first and foremost, for these players football is their job for which they get paid for. Who will like to continue working without pay, especially when you know that such money was provided for in your name. How many of us as engineers, doctors, journalists, businessmen, musicians, truck pushers, lecturers, clerics, soldiers, policemen, lawyers, civil servants, politicians, social media influencers etc will continually give our service to clients or the government without the pay that is due to us, even if we enjoy doing that job? There is no such thing as good time for the protest as the hardened criminals we have as NFF officials will never bulge at any time. Which match is not important?
If the fans feel so disappointed by the players conduct, they should also make their own little sacrifice by leading a massive and consistent street protest (not just social media protest) to sack the corrupt NFF officials. If the fans massively mobilize and demonstrate consistently against these corrupt and unpatriotic NFF officials, with massive media coverage, even FIFA will be forced to listen.
So far as we the fans continue to stay by the wayside and refuse to do our part, our football will continue to fast track into oblivion. If these guys don’t stand up to press their points at a time like this, we will continue in this endless cycle of corruption which has taken our sports thousands of kilometers back from our true potentials.
When we finally write the history of Nigerian football we will surely remember gusau nff as the worst football board to have administered our football. Apart from incompetence, financial scandal and absence of planning on the part of the board it is the style of football administration that has emboldened corrupt football officials to destroy the game we loved so much.
They deserve every penny they are owed and this is a disgrace by the bastard NFF since 2019??????? cmon man. The timing is bad tho….They could have used the Afcon which is another major tournament and a month away to present their grievances…but then again it is NFF’s fault
Ekong, didn’t even realise if they fails tomorrow, he himself wount have chance again in eagels, even he won’t be going to afcon.
Fans will clamour total over hauling of the team including the other staff that joined this protest.
When you know you have this agenda why flying down to camp, why don’t you just call the boys ekong and tell them not to show up unless the money was paid.
Abandoning training to me is a greatest mistake because one your opponents were in camp earlier than you.
Just one day to train, Ekong motivated the boys to down tools.
Am sure those players didn’t plan this if not for Ekong.
We know it is your right Mr Ekong to down tools but not at this rear opportunity. Remember Ekong fans too have some right and we are going to use it well should this affect you guys 2morow.
Whoever is blaming these players must have his brain checked. Instead of rallying around these players and hold these useless corrupt NFF accountable , una dey bash the players! Shey NFF dey forbid to do the right thing or them dey forbid to dey patriotic? This same rubbish don dey go on for so many decades and must be stopped even if it costs us this World Cup. We no deserve to go to the world cup with these bunch of criminals at the helm of affairs in the glass house. NFF has taken our football fifteen years backwards and it will take the introduction of honest football administrators to put Naija back on the spotlight for good reasons so for now let’s forget about going to the world cup with these bunch of rogues and put our house in order. We deserve better nah haba