AFCON: No upfront allowance payment for Eagles

Super Eagles players will not be paid their match bonuses ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations which will kick off in Egypt in three weeks.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Communications Director, Ademola Olajire, dropped this hint in a telephone interview with sportingtribune.com.

Olajire stated that the players and the technical crew would be paid their bonuses and allowances during the competition, adding that the country’s football ruling body has no plan to pay the players upfront the way they did before the 2018 World Cup.

Vintage Sports recalls that members of the Super Eagles received all their entitlements two weeks before the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. The move was to forestall incidence of bonus rows which have embarrassed Nigeria and other African Nations at the international competitions in the past.

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Olajire told Vintage Sports that each player will receive $5,000 for every win at the group stage of the 2019 AFCON in Egypt, while each of them will receive $15,000 for victory in the Round of 16. The package will however increase if the team progress beyond that stage of the competition.

“The players stand the chance to make more money this time because of the new format. Whoever is going to play in the final must be ready to play at least seven matches to lift the trophy,” Olajire Olajire told sportingtribune.com.

Recall that the Super Eagles boycotted training before their second round game against France at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil due to unpaid bonuses and allowances.

Nigeria are in Group B of the 2019 AFCON alongside Burundi, Guinea and Madagascar with their centre in Alexandria Egypt.