Nigeria’s Vanguard Newspaper is reporting that Super Eagles players, led by skipper Joseph Yobo and Mikel Obi have met with the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to demand an appearance fee for the World Cup.
This is outside the match bonus, which starts at $10,000-a-man for a first round match win, announced for the players for Brazil 2014.
“The players led by Yobo and Mikel met with NFF president Aminu Maigari and some of his officials to demand for their own share of the cash FIFA will pay the country for at least featuring in the first round of the World Cup,” a top source informed AfricanFootball.com
Nigeria will already earn more than $9 million for qualification and participation in the first round of the 2014 World Cup and they will get more if they reach the knockout stages of the competition.
For the World Cup warm-ups against Scotland, Greece and USA, each player received an appearance fee of $3,000.
Fellow World Cup finalists Ghana are on an appearance fee of $75,000-a-man for the 23 players who made the final cut to Brazil 2014.
It would be recalled that a row over such a fee derailed the Super Eagles at the 1998 World Cup in France as players and officials were locked in lengthy meetings to resolve the impasse.
Most recently, another pay row almost caused the country to miss out on the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil, before the Presidency intervened to avoid an international embarrassment.
This has led to the introduction of a code of conduct for the Eagles.
The squad are due in Sao Paolo, Brazil tomorrow.
