Former Super Eagles striker and ex-international, Stephen Makinwa has called on both the NFF as well as players of the national team to ensure they do not put the country in bad light moving forward over the issue of unpaid bonus and allowances.
NFF’s Acting President, Barrister Seyi Akinwunmi (in the absence of President Amaju Pinnick who is fully involved with organization as President of AFCON) said on Tuesday that the Federation received part of the money on yesterday morning and had immediately launched the process to convert the sum to American Dollars to pay the players their only outstanding entitlement – the win bonus for the match against Burundi in Alexandria on Saturday evening – and for subsequent matches, after the players started complaining over their unpaid allowances.
Speaking with brila.net, Makinwa called on the NFF to make sure they try to meet the players’ needs, while also urging the players to as well learn to put the country first, as none of them are poor footballers, and as such, should try to put their country first before their own interests.
“The issue is about seriousness, being serious about what you promised. Sometimes players don’t like being bounced around and taken for granted”.
“I still believe that in any case, it is a major tournament and has to also go beyond money. I believe in sometimes, doing what you can do and then the money issue can always be resolved with any form of distractions”.
“If anything should happen now, people will be blaming the NFF, so moving forward, the FF should be more sensitive towards issues such as this, and then the players too should understand once in a while, especially when there is no poor person amongst the players, meaning they could go further without anyone dying”
COMMENTS