Several disgraced Nigeria U-19 players were stranded in Abuja on return from the Suwon International Tournament in South Korea after they were each paid a meager five thousand naira by the officials of the Nigeria Football Federation as transport fare back to their bases following their poor outing in the four nation invitational tournament in the East Asian country.
Some of the players were stranded and had to send SOS message to their relations for more money to add to the 5,000 Naira paid each of them before they could return home,” a source informed.
“At a point it even looked like nothing would be paid to the team after they returned from Korea.”
Team officials received 10,000 Naira with head coach Manu Garba paid double that amount. The tournament organisers paid the NFF an appearance fee besides paying for their flight tickets and boarding in Korea.
The Nigeria U-19s, made up by the core of the U-17 players who failed to qualify for next year’s AFCON petit championship in Madagascar, posted a dismal outing at the invitational Suwon tourney.
They lost all three matches; 8-1 to England, 1-0 to Iran and 3-0 to hosts Korea to finish rock bottom of the competition.
Some of the players who spoke to journalists on condition of anonymity described as unfair the shoddy treatment meted out to them by the NFF and wondered why the football house will give them a paltry amount as transport which they say could not pay for their trip to their various homes.
“It is unfortunate that the NFF decided to treat us this way because we could not put up a good performance at the tournament.
“This type of shoddy treatment discourages one to represent his country. We are not saying that we should be paid millions but they should have paid us something reasonable to enable us get back to our various homes”, noted the players
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