Nigerian defender Kenneth Omeruo has stated that Super Eagles players have yet to be paid their bonuses for the ongoing 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, despite Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s well-publicised acceptance of their competition funding.
The Kasimpasa defender also denied rumours that certain senior players of the Super Eagles are upset with team captain Ahmed Musa, accusing him of failing to represent their interests and threatening to take their case directly to higher authorities.
“The report is a joke,” Omeruo told ESPN. Musa showed us at lunch, and we laughed about it.
“We are focused on our game, believing that our money will be paid. This squad is not the one to fight over money; otherwise, you would have heard that we refused to go to training even before the tournament.”
According to Nigerian Football Federation General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi, the federation is working closely with the Central Bank of Nigeria to speed up payments.
“The NFF is grateful to the CBN for the way and manner in which they have continued to expedite action on payment requests that we have sent to them with regards to this competition,” Sanusi told ESPN.
“We have not experienced any delays or complications of processes at the CBN this time, and we give kudos to them for their diligence and great sense of duty.”
According to ESPN, the Eagles’ pre-tournament agreement with the NFF states that players will be given graduated qualification incentives for each round they reach during the tournament, as well as similarly graduated match-by-match awards based on their progression through the tournament.
This is in contrast to the past, when they were only paid on a per-match basis.
