NSC, NFF insist on $5,000 bonus for Eagles

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi

Officials of the National Sports Commission and the Nigeria Football Federation have teamed up to take a stand on the Super Eagles’ match bonuses. The PUNCH learnt from very high levels in both organisations that the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil would be the last competition where the players would get the contentious $10,000 each for winning a game.

An official of the NSC, who spoke with our correspondent, lamented that neither the NSC nor the NFF could afford to continue sourcing for funds to meet with the $10,000 demand for each player and $20,000 for their coach Stephen Keshi who gets double what the players get for such. He however noted that a meeting has been scheduled for the coach and players’ representative to cordially sort out their differences on the matter.

He said, “It is not only win bonus that the NFF or NSC attends to; the bill is too huge to continue with. These people also get different types of allowances in camp. If you calculate what it costs for each game then people will understand that under the current state of affairs it is very difficult to continue at that tempo. Maybe in the future the bonus can be increased but for now we have to face the reality.

“The national teams are so many in both the male and female categories and so all this and so many other factors have to be taken into consideration.”

In a document obtained by The PUNCH, the NFF spent N176m on the salaries of the Eagles coaches from November 2011 to February 2013 with N80m going to Keshi. And within the set period, Keshi received $320,000 in match bonuses with the least being $4,000 received for the pre-Nations Cup friendly against Cape Verde. The coach got $40,000 for the win against Burkina Faso in the final match of the 2013 Nations Cup as the NFF papers indicate.

Our correspondent’s investigation proved that the NSC and NFF officials are not comfortable with the way Keshi handled the bonus fight in Namibia after a World Cup qualifying match on June 12. They alleged that the coach did not do enough to make the players understand the need to cut the bonuses.

“Ultimately the coach will also lose his by half and so it becomes very difficult expecting him to make his players fall into line. We think he didn’t handle the matter well in Windhoek for personal reasons,” he said.

PUNCH