We Were Shortchanged! - Super Falcons Players Laments as FG Fails to Pay Them Full Bonuses

Super Falcons protesting 

We reported on Friday that the outstanding winning bonuses for Super Eagles in the 2018 World Cup Qualifying Matches and for the Super Falcons’ participation in the 10th Women’s Africa nations Cup was finally released by federal government.

The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation had released the mandate to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for payment of of US$1,173,820.00 at N305/$ to Nigeria Football Federation to pay the aggrieving sports men and women.


However, some of the players have said they were shortchanged by the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) in the payment of their entitlements. The NFF in a breakdown, revealed the Falcons’ monies and what each player got.

The federation said, “Each player got N5,494,500, less the sum of N600,000 that was earlier paid to each of the players at various times by the NFF. The amount is at the rate of $17,900 (converted to naira at the official rate of N305 to $1), plus the sum of N15,000 camp allowance and N20,000 transport allowance. All the monies were converted at the official rate of N305 to $1.

“Coach Florence Omagbemi got a total of N11,014,000 (less the sum of N800,000 paid to her earlier), while assistant coaches Ann Chiejine, Perpetua Nkwocha and Bala Mohammed, as well as the backroom staff were paid N8,274,250, less the N500,000 earlier paid to each of them.”

According to an exclusive report by Punch newspaper, the players may be set for another showdown with the federation as they should have got more than the sums paid by the NFF.

The federation reportedly owes each player up to $25,000 for allowances and match bonuses from the qualifier for the 2016 AWCON against Senegal to the 1-0 win over Cameroon in the final on December 3.

The federation is also reported to owe the players for a 2016 Olympic qualifier and the 2015 All-Africa Games, where the team finished fourth. Each player’s entitlement is equivalent to N7.6m at the exchange rate of N305/$ at which the FG released the funds on Friday.

Some of the players, who pleaded anonymity, said they have got the alerts but the money was not their full entitlements as their bonuses and allowances for the AWCON qualifiers were not included.

“Some of us have been receiving alerts while they said the others will come later but what we are seeing is not the full amount we ought to get,” one of the players said. “Our total bonus and allowances shouldn’t be less than N7m each but we are getting alerts of less than N6m.

The allowances and bonuses for the qualifiers have been left unpaid.”

Another player said, “This is really unfair to us because we worked for this money. We have been patient for this long and for the NFF to shortchange us at the last moment is an injustice on their part.”