Nigeria Pulls Out Of African Nations Championship

AFRICAN champion, Nigeria has opted out of next year’s Championship of African Nations (CHAN) due to poor finances.
Nigeria was due in June to battle Cote d’Ivoire in a qualifier for the tournament reserved for players featuring in their respective domestic leagues.
The forthcoming CHAN will be staged early next year in South Africa, and Nigeria has twice failed to qualify for the tournament proper.

Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) executive committee member, Emeka Inyama said the association had to take this decision because they are broke.

“The home-based Eagles won’t play in the CHAN as we have withdrawn from the qualifiers due to lack of fund,” Inyama announced.

“We have a lot of financial commitments and we have to look at the competitions in order of importance.”

NFF is broke and is looking to downsize the technical crew and backroom staff of the various national teams, as well as slash the Eagles win bonus of $10,000.

The NFF Technical Committee has already recommended that the Super Eagles win bonus of $10,000 be reviewed and so also the salaries and allowances of the various national team coaches.

Unconfirmed reports have suggested that the win bonus will now be pegged at $5,000.
The number of coaches and backroom staff of the various national teams will also be pruned to a more manageable one.

The Eagles, for instance, have five coaches, including three assistant coaches and a total of 17 backroom staff members.

“The Technical Committee regretted the financial situation that has also necessitated the pegging of bonuses, review of allowances and salaries of coaches of the national teams,” read an official statement from the NFF.

----------Guardian Nigeria, April 10, 2013

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