THE Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Sunday declared that nobody had threatened African women’s champions, the Super Falcons, adding that such rumour was nothing but mere falsehood.
Rumours doing the round had it that top echelon of the country’s football-ruling body threatened to ‘deal’ with the recalcitrant Falcons for their insistence on being paid their full entitlements before departing Abuja.
Unconfirmed reports further stated that the lasses were being threatened with outright ban from the senior national women’s team, while the federation would liaise with their respective club sides to ensure that they were further sanctioned.
But reacting to these, the NFF spokesman, Ademola Olajire, told Tribunesport through a text message that nobody had threatened the Falcons, declaring that it was a falsehood being peddled by people who wanted to put the federation in bad light.
“Nobody has threatened any player,” Olajire, the Acting Director (Communication) of the federation stated.
“It is falsehood being spread by people who always want to put NFF in bad light,” he added.
Olajire confirmed that the federation paid each of the Falcons N100,000 as transport fare to depart for their respective destinations for now.
According to him, “they have been paid N100,000 transport fare, but they are still in the hotel.”
The Falcons, who emerged African champions for the eighth time penultimate Saturday in Yaounde, Cameroon, have since their return to the country remained adamant on being paid their full entitlements before they would leave the Agura Hotel in Abuja, where they are being lodged.
Last Thursday, the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, met with the players and their officials to assure them that government was working hard to ensure that they get their entitlements paid to them as soon as possible.
He informed that there was a process of getting funds in government, noting that it was unlike when an individual put his money in bank and later use ATM card to withdraw it later.
Dalung, however, blamed break in communication between the federation and the players for the avoidable crisis, even as he apologised to the players for the way their were treated by NFF officials.
Also last week, NFF General Secretary, Dr Sanusi Mohammed, met with the players to ask for their understanding, telling them that the body was unable to pay them their entitlements as a result of the current recession in the country.
Discussion about this post