Nigeria’s senior women’s football team, The Super Falcons, are planning to stage a protest and a match boycott over cancelled bonuses with less than two weeks to the start of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
According to Mobile Punch, the players are planning to protest and also boycott Nigeria’s opening match against Canada after the Nigeria Football Federation cancelled their bonuses.
A camp source who spoke to the aforementioned news agency said the decision to protest and boycott the team’s opening game was agreed upon by five senior members team: captain Onome Ebi, Rasheedat Ajibade, Asisat Oshoala, Ohale Osinachi, Tochukwu Oluehi and Desire Oparanozie after they held a long meeting on arrival at their training base – Mercure Resorts, Gold Coast, Australia.
The players according to reports had earlier been told by General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation Dr Mohammed Sanusi that their bonuses had been cancelled by the federation before the team left the country on Monday.
It was also gathered that the federation won’t give the players 30% of the $1,560,000 received from FIFA for the group stage of the competition. The Federation also added that the team will not be paid match bonuses since the world football governing body had already announced that each player will get $30,000 guaranteed in the group stage.
In response to latest developments from the NFF, the players agreed to stage a protest and boycott their opening match if their demands were not met.
“We are going ahead to press for our demands,” a senior player told The PUNCH. “We are ready to go as far as missing our first game against Canada July 21 because this has to stop.”
“On Wednesday night, we held a meeting where we agreed that we were going to find out if what we were asking for is legitimate, and that if it’s legitimate, we will press for our demands. It was what was agreed. The next meeting will be after we get the information we need and then the protest will start.”
“The General Secretary came for the meeting clutching so many papers; he told us that we won’t be paid match bonuses at the World Cup because FIFA had already given each player $30,000 for the group stage. He also said we won’t get 30 per cent from the $1,560,000 FIFA would give the NFF.”
“We were shocked, team morale went down immediately because we couldn’t believe what the man was saying,” the source told Mobile Punch.
“One of the oldest players in the team asked him if FIFA would deduct the money ($30,000) they would give us from the $1.5m they gave the federation but he (Sanusi) said no. So, she said if its like that, then it shouldn’t affect our match bonuses. After several minutes of argument, Sanusi asked us if we would have preferred the $9,000 match bonus or the $30,000 from FIFA.”
When the source was asked if coach Randy Waldrum who has been in a verbal altercations with the NFF in the past few days, influenced the players decision to protest, the source said:
“That’s not true, it’s a ploy to distract Nigerians from the truth. Randy has no hand in this. We’ve been suffering this maltreatment and injustice long before he took charge of the team. When the team revolted after the 2018 WAFCON and the 2019 World Cup, was Randy with us? We are fighting a good cause, we don’t need anyone to push us. They should allow the coach do his job.”
“Since the federation is treating us like this, we have decided to stage a protest before the competition begins, so that the whole world will know what we are passing through. We can’t keep suffering and smiling”
“At the last World Cup, the same thing happened and we were shortchanged, we won’t allow this to happen any longer. They dare not treat the Super Eagles like this. Is it because we are women? We must put a stop to this this time around.”
The Super Falcons, Player Suspension and Match Bonuses Retrospect
The Falcons have had a history of being involved in bonus disputes during international tournaments.
In 2004, after winning the WAFCON in South Africa, the record African champions refused to return home until they were paid their bonuses, highlighting the importance they placed on receiving their rightful rewards.
Similarly, in 2016, following their triumphant return from Cameroon with an eighth WAFCON trophy, the team staged a sit-in protest at their Abuja hotel. They were demanding that each player be paid $16,500 in bonuses, once again emphasizing their determination to receive fair compensation for their achievements.
Unfortunate consequences arose from the players’ actions. Striker Desire Oparanozie, who had led a bonus protest at the 2019 World Cup in France, was stripped of her captaincy and excluded from the team. Additionally, during last year’s WAFCON in Morocco, the squad boycotted training sessions before their third-place match against Zambia due to the same issue, highlighting the ongoing struggle for fair compensation.
The NFF as of the time of filing this report are yet to respond to the issues raised by the players.