Arsenal legend and former England International, Iam Wright has urged the Nigerian Football Federation to pay the Super Falcons of Nigeria.
The Nigerian female team stunned co-host nation of the FIFA women world cup, Australia, on Thursday afternoon by 3-2 to go top of group B.
The Super Falcons had previously drawn their first game against Canada who are the seventh ranked team in the world’s women ranking.
Reacting to their win over Australia after an impressive performance, Ian Wright through his official Twitter account tweeted, “Pay them!!? @thenff”.
PUNCH METRO reported that the Super Falcons considered a strike action and a boycott of their opening game in the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
This decision comes in response to the Nigeria Football Federation’s General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, informing the team that their match bonuses for the tournament have been revoked by the federation.
According to a camp source, the decision to hold a meeting was made by six senior players upon their arrival at the Mercure Resorts, Gold Coast, following Sanusi’s announcement. The players involved in the meeting were captain Onome Ebi, Rasheedat Ajibade, Asisat Oshoala, Ohale Osinachi, Tochukwu Oluehi, and Desire Oparanozie.
“We are going ahead to press for our demands,” a senior player said. “We are ready to go as far as missing our first game against Canada July 21 because this has to stop.
“On Wednesday night, we held a meeting where we agreed that we were going to find out if what we were asking for is legitimate, and that if it’s legitimate, we will press for our demands. It was what was agreed. The next meeting will be after we get the information we need and then the protest will start.”
After FIFA announced that each player at the tournament in Australia and New Zealand would receive $30,000, it has been reported that Sanusi met with the Nigerian team’s players before they left Abuja for Australia on July 2, and informed them that the federation would not be paying them match bonuses.
It was also gathered that he also announced that the players would no longer be given 30 per cent from the $1,560,000 FIFA grant to all member associations for the group stage of the competition.
The players were said to have been taken aback with the decisions.
“The General Secretary came for the meeting clutching so many papers; he told us that we won’t be paid match bonuses at the World Cup because FIFA had already given each player $30,000 for the group stage. He also said we won’t get 30 per cent from the $1,560,000 FIFA would give the NFF.
“We were shocked, team morale went down immediately because we couldn’t believe what the man was saying,” it was gathered.
