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| John Obi Mikel (R) of Nigeria celebrates his goal scored against Denmark during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games men’s quarter-final football match Nigeria vs Denmark, at the Arena Fonte Nova Stadium in Salvador, Brazil on August 13, 2016 NELSON ALMEIDA / AFP |
‘Japanese surgeon’s cash for Rio Olympics team ready’
Super Eagles’ Captain, John Obi Mikel, has denied that he told the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) leadership that senior national team players would no longer receive their match bonuses and allowances in the local currency, naira.
The players were paid N1 million each as win bonus for the African Cup of Nations qualifying victory over Tanzania, a difference of N1.35 million if the five thousand dollars is converted to naira on the unofficial market.
“I never granted any such interview and the team has not made that kind of demand at any time to the football federation, ” Mikel told thenff.com.
The national team will return to action on November 12 when they face Algeria in a World Cup qualifier scheduled to hold in Uyo.
Meanwhile,Africanfootball.com has revealed that some officials of the Nigeria team to the Rio Olympics have already received their cash from the $390,000 donated by a Japanese admirer at the games.
The officials each received $14,000.The report says the cash backup for the cheques has finally come through more than two months after the donation and already a number of officials have received their payments.
Wealthy Japanese surgeon, Katsuya Takasu, was highly impressed with the performance of the Samson Siasia-led team to Rio 2016 despite the many hurdles they faced and wrote out two cheques, one in favour of Siasia and the other for Chelsea star Mikel Obi.
The team agreed that the players be paid by Mikel, while Siasia sort out the officials.The documentation for the cheque in Mikel’s name is expected to be completed this week for the players to also smile to the bank shortly.Both players and officials had earlier expressed fears after the long delay it took to cash the cheques.
cc: guardian.ng
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