Khaberni - The Nigeria national team abstained from training in the 2025 African Nations Cup for football currently held in Morocco, protesting against non-payment of their winnings due.
"Africa Soccer" website, today Wednesday, reported that the players and technical staff refused to go to the field to conduct training, preparing to face the Algeria team, next Saturday, in the quarter-finals of the continental competition.
The Nigerian team had an ideal start in the tournament, after climbing to the knockout stages by winning all three of their matches in Group Three against Tunisia, Tanzania, and Uganda, thus topping the rankings with 9 points achieving complete success.
The team continued its exceptional results in the competition, after qualifying to the quarter-finals, following their crushing victory 4-0 over the Mozambique team, last Monday, in the round of 16, recording the biggest win in the current edition of the championship.
Despite this outstanding performance, the team abstained from training today, Wednesday, and threatened to continue the boycott until the overdue payments are disbursed.
It is scheduled that the Nigerian team will travel to Marrakech tomorrow, Thursday, preparing for their anticipated match against Algeria.
This situation is not the first of its kind; before participating in the African qualifiers for last year's World Cup, the players and officials also boycotted the training protesting against non-payment of their dues.
Despite resolving this dispute later, Nigeria lost the final match of the world playoff against the Democratic Republic of the Congo, thus failing to qualify for the World Cup for the second consecutive time.
There were also concerns about wages before the start of the African Nations Cup, where reports suggested that the team’s technical director, Mali’s Eric Scheil, had not been paid his salary and bonuses for three months.
