The end seems near for Nigeria’s quest for the Rio Olympic Games gold as
the Samson Siasia-tutored U-23 Olympic Eagles have reportedly shunned
training and threatened to boycott tomorrow’s quarter-final match
against Denmark unless they are paid the balance of their allowances in
Brazil.
The team who topped Group B despite going down 2-0 to
Colombia Wednesday are following in the steps of the senior national
team, the Super Eagles who also protested in Brazil before their second
round match against France at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The Eagles lost
2-0 and crashed out.
It would be recalled also that a similar
protest by the U-20 team, the Flying Eagles cost them a match against
Sudan who beat them 4-3 in Lagos after a 1-2 home loss in Omdurman.
According
to sources from the team’s camp the players the protest is also tied to
the unpaid five month salaries and allowances of the coaches which the
NFF president, Amaju Pinnick has directed the secretariat to settle with
the $60,000 grant received from CAF recently.
Africanfootball.com
also quoted a source close to the team as saying that “The players said
that their level of patriotism has already dwindled because of the way
they have been treated by the government officials prior to the Olympic
Games.
“As we speak now, the only money that the players have
received was the $150 dollars per day for 11 days, while there are more
than that 11 days still to be paid and no extra money was received for
the matches played so far”, the source also disclosed.
The coach
Samson Siasia-led team have already been overtaken by drama and
controversies in the last few weeks, from the players stopping their
coach from quitting his post to the team being stranded for several days
at their training base in Atlanta, Georgia.