Unpaid AFCON 2025 Bronze Bonus Tearing Super Eagles Apart
Duro Ikhazuagbe
Nigeria’s senior men’s team, the Super Eagles, are demanding the payment of their outstanding 2025 AFCON third place bronze bonus from the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) amongst other things.
Top football sources in Abuja have confirmed that the non payment of the $17,500 bonus to each of the players that were in Morocco for the AFCON has been partly responsible for why some of the senior stars avoided participation in the international friendly with Russia in Nizhny Novgorod on Tuesday.
According to the informed source, the players have been pushing for the payment of this bonus since they beat Egypt on penalties to finish third in Morocco in February.
SCORENigeria reported that the NFF under the Ibrahim Gusau led board received the money from CAF, but after many promises, the players are yet to be paid.
Gusau and his board members were forced to resign following spate of failures that trailed most of the national teams. The immediate cause was the inability of the Super Falcons to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup that they have never missed any since the inaugural edition in China in 1991.
Now, the Super Eagles are being managed by the NFF secretariat under an interim administration headed by Dr Emmanuel Ikpeme along with oversight functions by the National Sports Commission (NSC).
Another reports by Sports Village Square, said the Super Eagles were not paid their bonus for the third place match against Egypt at the AFCON 2027, but were paid the bonuses and other allowances for the previous games.
It was also learnt that they are unhappy about the fact that the NFF reduced their allowances without any information.
“This just happened in the 2027 AFCON qualifiers against Madagascar and Guinea-Bissau. They won the first match in Uyo but lost scandalously in Bissau,” the source noted.
The Super Eagles are also said to be unhappy due to what they perceived to be the NFF’s poor approach to their welfare.
This, perhaps, was the reason some top players led a revolt in the team’s dressing room in Bissau. They insisted that the federation ought to have sent an advance party to Bissau to check the quality of the pitch and prepare the players’ mind on what to expect against Guinea-Bissau in that encounter.
Although, none of the players has come out to air out their grievances, if the current situation persists, Nigerians may face another heartache of Super Eagles missing out of the AFCON next year, just as the team has missed two World Cups back-to-back.