The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has admitted it is “broke” as their standoff with the women’s national team over outstanding money continues.
The football house says it could only disburse the funds if they get additional payments from FIFA.
This was revealed by a former media officer of the Super Eagles, Colin Udoh, via his Twitter feed.
According to him, the NFF has already written to the federal government asking for funds to be approved.
Udoh wrote: “Late last week, I had a chat with NFF president, Ibrahim Musa Gusau. Among the many questions I asked him was the Super Falcons’ outstanding payments.
“He told me the NFF is flat broke, but would pay them from the federation share of the FIFA World Cup funds. He also mentioned that they had requested for funds from the FG, which had been approved, but had not been disbursed yet.
“By the way, anyone who has dealt with the Nigerian govt (state or FG) will know the term “approval is not the same as release”.
“I also spoke with another senior NFF official today after seeing the FIFPRO statement. And he told me that their involvement changes nothing.
“The players would get paid their outstanding once either of those two monies come in first.
“He explained that the NFF had not received any funding since and their last payment from FIFA was used to settle part of the national teams’ coaches wages (Peseiro and Waldrum). And that the FIFA funds had already been earmarked for paying the players outstandings.”
Randy Waldrum and his ladies have been at odds with the NFF over unpaid salaries and bonuses.
This led to the global players’ union, FIFPRO, releasing a statement on Tuesday in solidarity. The body noted that “it is regrettable that players needed to challenge their own federation at such an important time.”