Reports have it that the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is yet to remit to Nigeria the cash value for winning the Africa Cup of Nations.
The amount in question is $1.5 million (about N240million) and is the bounty the Super Eagles are entitled to for defeating Burkina Faso in the epic final on February 10, to claim the 28th Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.
At the grand celebration in Johannesburg, CAF only openly handed Nigeria the gold plated trophy as well as gold medals to the players and technical officials without a dummy cheque, indicating the total cash prize due to the winners.
A member of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) board Dr. Shehu Adamu, confirmed to THISDAY on Monday night that the ‘Glasshouse’ was yet to receive the prize money from CAF two weeks after Nigeria won the continent’s biggest football showpiece.
Mr. Adamu, who is the chairman of the NFF Finance and Appropriations Committee, said he could not understand why there was a delay in the transaction as the Nigerian federation had already submitted its bank details to CAF, waiting for its account to be credited.
“We have not received any alert from CAF regarding the Africa Cup of Nations prize money. We have sent our account number to them and the money is yet to hit the account. We are still waiting for them to pay the money,” Mr. Adamu said.
It is being suggested that CAF is playing hide and seek by delaying the prize money redemption as a strategy to make Nigeria pay the disputed TV rights fee of 8.5m euros (over N1 billion) which CAF President Issa Hayatou claimed Nigeria was owing to the confederation over the broadcast of the Africa Cup of Nations.
The refusal of Nigeria to pay the huge rights fees demanded by CAF agents, resulted in the non-telecast of the Africa Cup of Nations matches on local television stations, prompting Nigerians to watch the matches on pay per view television.