Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is to pay Nigeria $12 million for participation in the World Cup Russia 2018.
In FIFA.com official release, Nigeria would collect $2 million for preparation for the World Cup and $10 million to appear in the Group stage of the competition.
This amount shows an increase of $500,000 against $1.5 million given in 2014 World Cup for preparation by each participating country and $8 million for appearing in the group stage.
This decision was taken to increase the World Cup participation money by $300,000 which represents 22 per cent increase from the FIFA 2014 World Cup participation fee. It was approved by FIFA Executive Committee chaired by Sepp Blatter, immediate past President of FIFA based on a proposal submitted by Finance Committee of the world football ruling body.
However, Super Eagles Coach, Gernot Rohr has warned against another pay strike at the World Cup if the country, and hoped to improve on their previous outings at the global tournament.
At the 2014 World Cup, the Super Eagles skipped a training to protest the non-payment of bonus for qualifying for the tournament forcing the country’s sports minister to fly out by private jet to pay them almost $4 million cash in Brazil.
Rohr who celebrated after the FIFA World Cup 2018 qualifying football match between Nigeria and Zambia in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, on October 7, 2017, believed the three-time African champions can improve on their best World Cup performance of a Round of 16 by better and early preparation as well as ensuring money issues are sorted out well in advance.
Nigeria has so far used a total of 37 players for the qualifying tournament for Russia 2018 and they are all entitled to a share of a qualification bonus. Rohr, a 64-year-old Franco-German coach, said he believed that with a fully prepared and united team both on and off the pitch, Nigeria can expect their best performance at next year’s tournament.
“If we want to do something at the World Cup, we have to prepare well,” he said. “We want everybody who wants to be part of the team to show the same solidarity we currently have in the team. “More importantly, we don’t want the issue of money to be a problem.
“The issue of bonuses and allowances, which are the usual African problem we see during the World Cup, must be avoided. “Such issues will be bad for our preparation. “I have told my officials and the federation president that all (such issues) be cleared before the start of the competition.”
