Nigeria's 2016 Olympic Games dream in limbo as players threaten to boycott African U-23 tourney

The Nigeria U-23 Olympic national team may be heading to a crisis as some of the players invited for the CAF U-23 Africa Cup of Nations have threatened to boycott the team’s camp.

It was gathered that the players are upset with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for treating them like ‘orphans’

Most of the players were part of the Super Eagles team that just picked the Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) ticket in Burkina Faso and were paid $2,000.

After being paid such an amount and enjoying other privileges, the players are considering staying away from the team’s Abuja camp until the situation improves. NFF owes the entire team match bonuses and camp allowances, with each player collecting $1,500 for a win.

“These players recounted their humiliation in Congo during the All Africa Games how they were paid $100 as daily allowance and never got anything for the victories,” a source told SportingLife.

“They would have preferred to stay with their clubs if they knew they won’t be paid bonuses for the victories at the games,” said the source.

“As if that is not enough these players were paid $2,000  each for qualifying for CHAN despite  drawing their match against Burkina Faso. Meanwhile, the same NFF is owing the team their bonuses for beating Congo to qualify for the All Africa Games,” added another source.

“Although we are hearing that their bonuses for the Congo matches are being processed but until we see it, we won’t believe.

Only 10 players are presently in Abuja out of the 35 invited by coach Samson Siasia.