Players of the Greek national team raised
patriotism a notch when they decided to donate
their earnings from the World Cup into the
building of a training centre for the national team.
Emulating their Greek counterparts, players of the
Algerian national team will donate their earnings
to the poor in Gaza. Apart from these two teams,
not once did we hear of cash or allowances issues
in the camps of teams from other parts of the
world apart from Cameroonian players who made
a big show before a ball was kicked at the World
Cup, the Ghanaian players who were focused on
getting paid before their make or mar game
against Portugal and the Nigerian players before
their 2nd round game against France.
Cameroonians and Ghanaians will do better at
looking at what went wrong with their own teams,
let us take a look at the Super Eagles and why we
get to hear about pay issues at virtually every
tournament they take part in.
One would look at the Super Eagles and would
immediately blame them for always seeming to
play only for the money and always fighting over
same. It would be better to understand that there
would be no need to fight if one was already given
or assured of receiving one’s due. Over the years,
players of the national teams have been promised
gifts and cash that some of them are yet to receive
until this day. Ask the winners of the 1994 World
Cup and the houses promised them. We cannot
afford to pretend about our country and the way
promises continue to be made without being kept.
As one of the young students that marched at the
Nigeria ’99 U/20 World Cup, we were to be paid
daily dues for practice and honourarium for
participation at the opening ceremony. As these
words get typed 15 years later, most of us never got
a dime. We were of course excited to represent our
country but if money was already made available
for our participation, isn’t it only just right to pay
us our due? The same thing happened the following
year when we participated at the opening
ceremony of the African Nations Cup in the year
2000. Now imagine that happening repeatedly to a
team of professionals who have seen those who
came before them abandoned by the national
team?
Players like Reuben Agboola were abandoned by
the national team despite copping career ending
injuries while playing for same. Our players know
that when push comes to shove, they are on their
own. Imagine the Super Eagles donating their pay
to the Nigeria Football Federation to build a
football centre. You know that the likelihood of the
money being used judiciously or being used at all
is as low as expecting snow in July if you live in
London.
It is all about precedence, the football federation
must build and earn the trust of the players over
the coming years. If players know that they will be
paid their dues after certain timelines, there’d be
no need to fight over allowances. We don’t hear
them complain about their clubs not paying their
wages because a process is often in place that
makes such payments automatic from the day the
contract is signed.
Indicting players when issues of allowances come
up with the national team will never solve the
problem. The reaction of the players is only the
result of a deeper issue. The real issue is the
football federation. Why would adults suddenly
start arguing about money if everything was truly
discussed and agreed upon before hand? These
players are professionals, they earn to play
football; they are not covered by government
pensions in retirement. What they can earn now is
what they get. Several old national team players
are today wallowing in poverty, today’s players are
not blind, they can see all that and they don’t want
to be victims of such failures.
You have to look at this beyond our football; our
doctors are currently on strike, our university
lecturers go on strike every other year, our
polytechnic lecturers are on strike, civil servants
are owed across several states, pension belonging
to the aged continue to be stolen and in the midst
of this, politicians continue to loot and to steal.
What you see is a nation where people want their
share out of the system. We must respect those who
choose to earn their pay because we have
thousands of people feeding fat on the rest of us
who deserve nothing but jail terms.
Several of the Super Eagles players support
charities and are breadwinners supporting big
families beyond their nuclear set up. Football is a
limited career, few people play at the top for up to
15 years. The FIFA World Cup is not a charity
event, every participating country is rewarded and
countries are then rewarded according to how far
they go in the competition. The Nigeria Football
Federation’s chairman was praising the President
for stepping into the cash row. That the cash row
happened at all is an indictment on the chairman’s
leadership ability. How many things do we want
the President to be burdened with if he has to step
into cash matters involving the Super Eagles? And
don’t even think lessons have been learnt, this is
likely to happen again at our next major
tournament. May be it is just who we are but one
thinks these things shouldn’t be made to look like
rocket science.

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