The issue of money and payment of bonus to players is not likely to pose any problem to the Nigerian national team in Russia, next year. The reason is that all the players who featured for the Super Eagles, on their way to qualifying for the 2018 World Cup will share from the N4.5 billion largesse coming to Nigeria from FIFA for being among the 32 teams that will vie for honours in Russia.
FIFA will pay the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) $10.5 million for qualifying for the 2018 World Cup tournament and an additional $2.5 million to prepare for the competition in Russia. Such bonuses are usually paid by FIFA to the soccer federations of countries that play in any of their tournaments as qualification bonus and to enhance the country’s adequate preparation for the actual tournament.
According to the NFF, so far, 37 players participated in Nigeria’s campaign for the 2018 World Cup and each of these players will receive a share of the qualification bonus. When the Super Eagles get to Russia and make it to the knock-out stages of the tournament, they will be eligible to receive more dollars from FIFA.
The issue of paying bonuses to the team adversely affected Nigeria’s participation in the 2014 edition of the competition in Brazil, leading to players refusing to train on the eve of their second round game against France. Nigeria lost that game.
Super Eagles’ technical adviser, Gernot Rohr, recently pleaded with Nigerians to support the team by ensuring that monetary issues do not derail the campaign in Russia. “If we want to do something at the World Cup, we have to prepare well. We want everybody who wants to be part of the team to show the same solidarity we currently have in the team. More importantly, we don’t want the issue of money to be a problem,” he said.
