Nigeria’s senior women national team were handed 10,000 Naira ($50) each after they successfully booked a ticket to the 2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations on Tuesday.
The money will not even buy a flight ticket from Abuja to Lagos.
This is in contrast with the senior men’s team that gets paid $4000 for a draw and $5000 for a win. The men failed to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations for a second straight year last month.
This is not the first time national teams have been poorly treated. In 2015, the victorious Golden Eaglets were decamped with N20,000 after winning the FIFA U17 World Cup.
Florence Omagbemi’s side resumed camp on March 7 and spent over a month in the successful execution of the qualification campaign.
The players and officials of the Super Falcons were decamped on Tuesday evening and they were handed the sum of 10,000 Naira that was meant to get them to their various destinations.
The fate of the nine foreign-based players who participated in the Falcons’ qualifying series is unconfirmed. Though another source hinted that they also received their return flight ticket fares.
An NFF source informed Goal that the team was already aware of the organization’s financial challenges and provision of transport fare with plans to pay their bonuses and allowances soon.
Unlike their male counterparts, Goal understands that the women are yet to be paid bonuses since last year’s Olympic qualifying campaign against Mali under former coach Edwin Okon.
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Some decisions are not worth taking especially where those decisions affect a person's human dignity. The Super Falcons are our girls, Nigerian girls, African women. they deserve respect in all they do. They could have easily crashed out of the impending championship, but they gathered their courage and qualified. There are nations that wish they had a team like the Super Falcons but they don't. While Nigeria should be celebrating them all the way, NFF chooses to humiliate our players with $50 whereas one member of the so-call NFF has stolen enough to pay each player $5000. What is the incentive that would prompt these girls to sacrifice for this backward country next time around? If a nation wants to succeed in sports, it treats the players gingerly and generously. Every win should draw compensation not only for the players but each member of the coaching staff as well as the training crew including the team's medical staff. The NFF is staffed by incorrigibly corrupt, and innately incompetent individuals. If Nigeria wants to benefit from the athletic efforts of her youths, NFF should be resolved right now. Presidential committee to investigate NFF should start immediately. There are a lot of intelligent and credible Nigerians who can successfully and responsibly manage NFF. The nation needs individual who would understand that every effort should be compensated. The Super Eagles lost out but were compensated a lot more than the ladies who won and qualified. Nigeria needs NFF chief who knows that all coaches must be paid his or her salary when due because coaches have families to feed. Nigeria demand NFF that will appreciate our players, pay them handsomely to induce their commitment. Because of the ugly situation regarding compensation following Falcons' qualification after Senegal's match, it is time for a new blood to be injected into NFF. This is a serious matter, our girls should not be playing their hearts out there for this sleepy nation, only to be humiliated. I humbly and respectfully ask that the First Lady Mrs. Aisha Buhari take the matter to the President for immediate resolution. Our girls deserve better treatment than $50, when one senator has stolen enough to buy a world class ocean going vessel. Do the right thing, respect our girls, Nigeria is not a stingy nation, it is the wrong individuals in position of authority who have taken the pains to drag the name of this country to the mud.