NFF: We Are Not Owing Super Falcons  

NFF: We Are Not Owing Super Falcons   

The Nigeria Football Federation has flatly denied owing players and officials of the senior women national team, Super Falcons any money, in the wake of reports earlier on Sunday that the Falcons were refusing to leave their hotel at the World Cup in France over pay dispute with the Federation.

“We have paid the players and officials the entitlements due them for the tournament and other outstanding bonuses and allowances were settled before the team arrived at the World Cup finals,” Shehu Dikko, NFF 2ndVice President, told thenff.com.

The Federation went further to clarify in detail as follows:

The monies for the Super Falcons’ preparation and participation at the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals in France (and indeed the Super Eagles’ preparation and participation in the AFCON 2019in Egypt) were recently approved by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR). But the release of the funds is still being processing by the Federal Ministry of Finance and will be concluded soonest.

Inspite of the delay in release of funds, the NFF made huge sacrifices including borrowing to ensure it gave the Falcons the very best of preparation for the World Cup in France with about 15 test games, with camps/games held in China, Cyprus, Spain, CIV, and Austria (a fact that even the team duly appreciated and agreed it was the best-ever for any Nigerian team going to the Women’s World Cup and even wrote to thank the NFF). The NFF is indeed encouraged by results achieved by the Super Falcons in France, being the first time the team qualified to the knockout rounds in the last 20 years with credible performance against some of the world’s best teams.

The NFF duly ensured it addressed all the issues raised by the team captain Desire Oparanozie via an email prior to the team resuming in camp in Austria and used it best efforts, to settle all the players’ claims and bonuses to so as to provide an enabling platform for the players to perform without any distractions in France for the World Cup.

To this end, payments made to the players at the pre-World Cup camp in Austria and France (World Cup proper) are set out below:

a) 2016 Women Africa Cup of Nations Qualifier: Nigeria Vs Senegal (Home Match) played in Abuja – Win bonus of N500,000 paid to each player.

 

b) 2018 Women Africa Cup of Nations Qualifier: Nigeria Vs Gambia (Home Match) played in Lagos – Win bonus of N500,000 paid to each player.

 

c) Camp and Friendly matches played in Spain – 7 days’ daily allowance of $700 paid to each player.

 

c) WAFU Cup Tournament (staged in Cote d’Ivoire): Allowance of $500 paid to each player.

 

d) Pre-World Cup camp in Austria: 14 days’ daily allowance $1,400 paid to each player.

 

e) Refund made to players on visa procurement, train, bus and airport taxi from their different bases in Europe to the camp in Austria.

 

f) $4,400 paid to each player, being win bonus for the World Cup match against Korea Republic ($3,000) and 14 days’ daily allowance for the World Cup ($1,400). This was paid direct to each of the players’ domiciliary accounts by NFF fund managers, Financial Derivatives Company and by Friday most of the players had started receiving alerts depending on their banks.

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