By Harry Awurumibe, Head, Abuja Bureau
Despite the recent misunderstanding between Nigeria’s senior men’s football team and the management over delayed payments of the team’s match entitlements at the ongoing African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco, the President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Ibrahim Musa Gusau insists that the Super Eagles will reach the last four stage of the tournament.
According to him, if the players would avoid mostly off-field distractions and concentrate on the business at hand in Morocco, they will achieve the set goal of having a shot at the ultimate prize of winning the coveted CAF AFCON trophy for the fourth time in history.
Speaking exclusively to Prompt News Online from Morocco, Gusau argued that the Super Eagles have all that it takes to go all the way to the finals in AFCON 2025 if the players and officials of the team will concentrate on the task ahead and trust the system to complete the process of giving them what belongs to the team no matter the delays.
Recall news broke on Wednesday that Super Eagles would boycott travelling to Marrakech on Thursday from their base in Fez to face Algeria in the quarter-final match on Saturday amid unpaid bonus row.
Earlier in the day, rumours circulated in the social media that players and coaching staff decided not to train or travel in protest over outstanding bonuses from four AFCON 2025 matches’ victories against Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Mozambique.
It was reported that the squad was waiting for the payments to be settled and would suspend full preparations until the delayed payments issue was addressed, but the team later trained and also travelled on its scheduled flight to Marrakech.
However, the officials of the National Sports Commission (NSC) and NFF later provided clarity on the delayed payment, absolving both bodies of any blame even as the federal government of Nigeria intervened by acting swiftly to remove all the bureaucracies that led to the delay in the payment of the players bonuses by the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Having sorted out the players and officials, Gusau is optimistic that the Super Eagles, who have since arrived in Marrakech for the win or burst duel against the Desert Foxes of Algeria on Saturday will shun any off-field distractions and concentrate fully to get the job done for the glory of the fatherland.
Said he: “I will appeal to our players and officials to please focus their minds on the job of winning their matches and be rest assured that they will get all their bonuses and allowances in due time as the federation is working round the clock to ensure that their welfare and wellbeing are of top priority in Morocco.”
The NFF boss argued that the delays in payment of Super Eagles’ entitlements are beyond the federation as relevant federal government’s agencies are involved in processing the payments, especially as it involves payments in foreign currencies, which the players agreed to be paid into their domiciliary accounts.
According to him, the players and officials will benefit more should the team go all the way to lift the trophy in Morocco than pickering over the delayed payments of already settled bonuses, pointing out that the team stands to earn huge amounts of money earmarked for them should they reach the final and win the cup.
“It should be noted that NFF has paid camp allowances of the team up to date and intends to do more for the players and officials if they continue to record good results just as there is no need to create tension in the camp when the assignment has not been completed”, Gusau stated.
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The Zamfara-born football administrator, therefore, solicited the cooperation of the players, coaches, stakeholders, fans, and Nigerians to ensure that the Super Eagles succeeded in Morocco.
“Despite what I will call small off-field misunderstanding, I believe the Super Eagles are determined to win Saturday’s quarter-final match against Algeria to continue our AFCON 2025 campaign in Morocco”, Gusau concluded.
