'They treat us like slaves' - Super Falcons players in new attack on NFF over FIFA bonus and World Cup allowances

Anonymous players of the Super Falcons team that represented Nigeria at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup have spoken about the humiliation they are facing at the hands of the Nigerian Football Federation. 

Before the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, complaints were raised by national team manager Randy Waldrum about unpaid salaries for staff as well as owed bonuses for players, with the Super Falcons coach detailing how he had not been paid in seven months. 

The situation did not get better after Nigeria’s impressive showing at the World Cup where they reached the round of 16 before losing to England, and players were forced to make a joint statement immediately after demanding their allowances and bonuses from the competition. 

According to a report by TheAthletic, each Super Falcons player was due $100 for every day spent in camp during the World Cup, as well as $3,000 per win and $1,500 per draw, totalling almost $10,000 after the tournament, but players have received just over 10% of the money, with little assurance of when or if the rest will be paid.

According to an unnamed source who was part of the Super Falcons’ team at the World Cup, only $1,000 was given to the players in cash, being part of the allowances for 23 days of camp, while an outstanding amount of $1,300 which was meant to be paid into the team members account, is yet to arrive more than a month after the end of the tournament. 

A source claimed that the players are tired of the treatment meted out to them by the NFF, who barely regard them, telling the Athletic, “They don’t treat us as if we are here to play for our country — they treat us as if we are slaves.” 

To further buttress the ill-treatment of the players who represented Nigeria at the World Cup, the anonymous source also revealed that the NFF was trying to hoodwink the Super Falcons out of their agreed bonuses, hiding behind FIFA’s generosity to do so. 

As mentioned earlier, players were due match-day bonuses from the NFF as negotiated in a signed agreement before the World Cup, but following the completion of the tournament, the players were informed that they would not be paid the agreed bonuses as they would be receiving bonuses from FIFA instead. 

The players disagreed with this rationale, as the bonuses agreed with the NFF was meant to be separate from the bonuses that FIFA promised each participating nation depending on their final World Cup placement. 

One of the players who was at the World Cup told The Athletic, “We disagreed, we told them ‘no’. You can’t come and tell us you’re not paying us our match bonuses… How can you tell me FIFA included your match bonus [in its money]? They take us as if we are fools as if we don’t know anything, as if we don’t know our rights.”

Despite assurances to the contrary, the players are yet to receive the FIFA bonuses, the match bonuses that were agreed upon in written contracts with the NFF, or the remainder of their camp allowances, leaving many in the team frustrated. 

Players had hoped that the decision to sign written contracts as opposed to verbal agreements would be enough to see actual action taken in order to get them their due pay, but the negligence of the women’s national team appears to be rearing its ugly head once again

Members of the Super Falcons’ team that are being owed have enlisted the help of the players’ union FIFPro in ensuring that the NFF pays what was agreed upon at the start of the World Cup, but a resolution appears to be well out of sight at the moment.