NFF denies shortchanging Flamingoes

The Nigeria Football Federation director of competitions, Dr Mohammed Sanusi has defended the meager sum paid to Nigeria’s Under-17 women team, Flamingoes for the two-week sojourn in camp.

The players were asked home for a week on Monday from the side camp in Abuja and were given varying sum of money ranging from N6, 000 – N10, 000 depending on the destination of the individual player.

The players were said to have openly grumbled upon receipt of the paltry sum after two-week stay in camp.

It was in the course of the side stay in camp that they secured ticket for the 2014 Fifa Under-17 World Cup holding in Costa Rica without kicking a ball following their challengers, South Sudan withdrawal from the biennial global football showpiece race.

Sanusi said the players two-week stay in camp was considered to be an open camp as such not eligible or entitled for any camp allowance as the money expanded on them was transportation fare back to their various homes.

“NFF does not pay allowance to players in an open camp or trial the money given the players was their fare back to their homes.

“None of them has been selected rather the coach invited them with the hope of picking those that will meet his requirement.

“It’s then that those who made the cut will subsequently enjoy the privilege of camp allowance once invited to camp.

“Right now the players just ended their open camp exercise and that’s why they were asked home to so that the successful ones among them will reconvene in week’s time for the start of preparations for the World Cup campaign,” Sanusi said to supersport.com.

Falconets, too, suffered similar fate as they were handed a paltry $1000 upon return from Freetown, Sierra Leone where they battled the side opponents for a place in the upcoming 2014 Fifa Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Canada.

Falcons were not better treated during the run in for the two-match friendly with the Japanese women side in Japan as they were paid $7000 instead of the mandatory $100000.