Nigeria midfielder John Mikel Obi has been fined $5000 for failing to meet a Tuesday deadline to report to the Nigeria team camp.

The Super Eagles have a decisive 2012 African Nations Cup qualifier against Guinea and players were given a lunchtime deadline on Tuesday to report.

All except Mikel did. The Chelsea star called to ask for an extra day to take care of family issues.

The request did not go down well with team officials and a decision was taken to slap a hefty fine on the player.

Mikel will now arrive on Wednesday, but has already missed two training sessions.

Since taking over, Samson Siasia has clamped down hard on indiscipline within the squad, leading to widely-publicised issues with players.

But his style has support from the majority o fthe squad, and his immediate bosses at the NFF.

And for the first time in recallable memory, all but one player had reported to the team hotel within 24 hours of camp opening.

This is a welcome development to discipline the players. Just some reservations. The fine should be a standard, not just a one time incident. Why $5K? If a player from Eyimba arrives late to camp, would be be fined $5k? Or is it because we all know his salary? I just think there should be a baseline for such fines and they should be standardized.

mallorca:

Go Eagles

Knight1:

sia1 strict attitude is beginning to border on harsh. soon the players will arrive on time, do all he tells them without any genuine respect or relationship with him. even when he makes mistakes that they can correct, they'll rather he took the fall.

nsiadi:

Please lets balance the reactions, Mikel was 1st to arrive camp last time
Let whoever has superior fact prove this wrong

This time around he called to say he will be late, quite courteous
He even mentioned reason for permission, not a flimsy one!

Unless he is being punished for previous offence(s),  he is definitely clean here
Discipline , ok, but must not be @ all cost. Never gun 4 Pyrrhic victory

Folks note that discipline isnt the only input needed for good outing
Do other things right & discipline will fall in line

Who licks the wound now on Vincent, even after he has apologized?
We must be v realistic-Sia 1 shd prepare to flee Naija if we lose2Guinea. Ask TB Joshu)

D sage:

Time wi come wen all d key players in d s.eagle team wi no longer honor siasia invitation.A gud coach dnt always emphasis on disciplin but makes his players kno wat pple ar expect 4m dem&how important d match is.We all kno Enyeama as a gud GK&despite a series of apology 4m dis guy,siasia sti rfuse to accept him back to d team,siasia is gradually kill dis team in d name of disciplin.

chima ike:

Sia is just too hard, with his father and son attitude.

D sage:

Time wi come wen all d key players in d s.eagle team wi no longer honor siasia invitation.A gud coach dnt always emphasis on disciplin but makes his players kno wat pple ar expect 4m dem&how important d match is.We all kno Enyeama as a gud GK&despite a series of apology 4m dis guy,siasia sti rfuse to accept him back to d team,siasia is gradually kill dis team in d name of disciplin.

milehigh06:

both of you,name one nation that is up there in football that has problems with indiscipline
it is inbred in Nigerians as a whole and standards have to be set and met not seen to be met for if he had let mikel go,then does it justify osas and enyeama's punishments?you dont deal with 2 and let 1 go scot free most especially since most Nigerians see mikel and some few playrs as siasia's boys

Knight1:

they aren't disciplined because they are scared of the coach!!!
they are because they've been made to understand the importance of their punctuality.
if Mikel truly called ahead, then SIa is way out of line with the fine; he's just trying to show that he's tough
as someone asked, would he fine an eyimba player at all sef? he'd probably just leave out the dude from the team

and to answer your questions,
if you think the only reason we have not achieved glory all these while is indiscipline, you need to wake up bro!!
what tactical benefit did berti vogts provide? or lars lagerback? or even Christian Chukwu? ehn!!!!!
or you have forgotten the politics of the NFA? installing players on coaches?

The ultimate goal and dream of every young nigerian of mikel's background is to attain financial success and evade poverty,and this,the young man has exceedingly done;we all know what he rakes in, every thursday.

Mikel is the weakest link at his west london club,neither has he been impressive in the handfull of games he starred in for the national team,he deliberately stayed away from over 80 percent of all the matches he's been invited to play in,isn't it obvious the man from the plateau isn't interested in playing for nigeria? He's made his money and isn't concerned about laurels or glory. Why do nigerian coaches still extend invitations to him?

1025:

@Olalekan 0,
in the same way, we know ppl of your mindset what they can do to progressives like mikel. if you are not a misguided informant, how come u say mikel is not interested in laurels? mikel two seasons ago had two medals and is fighting to get some more yet greed will never let you mention that.

$5k from mikel is good if that will change the super eagles and nigeria as a whole. these players are not slaves as to swallow whatever siasia says, hook, line and sinker.

we have heard abt players yet to receive their match bonuses for sa2010 and govt have released all since. we hear about bad treatments by our FA against these players. chinedu ogbuke was injured in sa2010 and was out of football for 4 months with no single official putting a call across to ask how are u doing? who protects the interests of these players if enyema gets the axe for voicing out his opinion? how long will this last? siasia can only put fears into these players without earning their respects. most times, caoches like siasis ends up between S.eagles and a local team.

mikel is more than able to pay the $5k fine but how many other players will if they are found in same situation? $5k is a good idea but is that the fine for late coming to eagles camp now or is it just for mikel? selective justice is always the thing of nigeria and nigerians otherwise, i will ask that siasia continue that way. we will come back here to ask questions if tomorrow another player did not get a fine or get something below what we hear now. let us not start what we cannot finish.

the way nigerians attack mikel and issues related to him is very very irritating. such hatred can only come from envt and jealousy. is it his fault that he is lucky? is mikel among these politicians that are messing our systems up and stealing our public funds. we are even lucky boko haram did not threaten to scatter the stadium because the match would have been made an indoor game. shame to nigeria. i know every player in the team will be manned by 20 policemen since the fear of boko haram has become the begining of wisdom.

i am glad that even Tu face Idibia has made it clear that "who God bless, no one can course" not even kidnappers.

to siasia, this fine is coming far too late because if he was this careful from the onset, we will not find ourselves in this tight angle now. all in all, we need a ticket whether mikel pays $1m or not. all the same, we are wishing the S. Eagles the best of lucks.