The U23 football team of Nigeria will likely not honour their first game at the Africa U23 Cup of Nations which starts in Egypt this weekend, Owngoalnigeria.com understands.
Nigeria will take on Ivory Coast on Saturday in their first group game but players of the Nigerian team will likely not honour the game unless the Nigeria Football Federation ( NFF) pay up the debts they are owed.
Players of the team who spoke to Owngoalnigeria.com on the condition of anonymity revealed that they have not received any form of allowance or bonus since the first game they played against Libya in the qualifiers for the tournament.
” We have not received any match bonus from the NFF for all the four games we played in the qualifiers. The idea that kept us going is get the job done and others will follow but for how long are we going to be waiting “, he told Owngoalnigeria.com.
Another player of the team said they have not received any form of visit or assurance from the NFF on when they plan to pay up the money and even when they asked from the officials attached to the team they got no response.
” It’s two days to our first game and nothing is coming from them. It’s not like we must be paid but we have to know what’s going on. The silence is making it look like if we don’t act they won’t say anything so we might not play the game”, he concluded.
