• Federation denied us 30% of FIFA $1.5m – Players players
The Super Falcons are planning to stage a strike and boycott their opening game of the 2023 Women’s World Cup after the General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation Dr Mohammed Sanusi told them their match bonuses for the competition had been cancelled by the federation.
A camp source said the decision was taken after six senior players captain Onome Ebi, Rasheedat Ajibade, Asisat Oshoala, Ohale Osinachi, Tochukwu Oluehi and Desire Oparanozie — held a lengthy meeting on arrival at the Mercure Resorts, Gold Coast, following Sanusi’s announcement.
“We are going ahead to press for our demands,” a senior player told newsmen . “We are ready to go as far as missing our first game against Canada July 21 because this has to stop.
It was learnt that shortly before the Nigerian contingent departed Abuja for Australia July 2, Sanusi, during a meeting with the players, told them that they would not be paid match bonuses by the federation, since FIFA had already announced that every player would get $30,000 in the group stage of the tournament in Australia and New Zealand.
The PUNCH gathered 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
NFF president Ibrahim Gusau and Sanusi did not respond to telephone calls on the matter, while they also didn’t reply to the text and WhatsApp messages sent to their phones as of the time of filing this report.
It’s not the first time the Falcons would be involved in a bonus row at an international tournament.
The record African champions refused to travel back home after winning the 2004 WAFCON in South Africa, insisting they were paid their bonuses first.
In 2016, after returning from Cameroon with an eighth WAFCON trophy, they also staged a sit-in protest at their Abuja hotel to press home their claims for each player to be paid $16,500 after their triumph.
Striker Desire Oparanozie was stripped of her captaincy and banished from the team after she led a bonus protest at the 2019 World Cup in France, while the squad also boycotted training sessions ahead of their third-place clash agains Zambia at last year’s WAFCON in Morocco over same issue.
PUNCH
