The Treasury Single Account policy has been blamed for the delay in the payment of allowances and bonuses of players and coaching crew of the Dream Team VI in Rio, Brazil.
A statement issued by Ademola Olajire, the Nigeria Football Federation’s Assistant Director of Communications, quoted the federation’s President, Amaju Pinnick, as saying so when he communicated with the team’s handler, Samson Siasia, on telephone.
Pinnick was quoted as having said: “I just finished a long telephone discussion with Siasia and I explained to him the situation the NFF is in and why he has not received his salary.
“As I explained last week, we received some money from CAF and I directed that the money be used to offset the salaries of the U-23 team coaches and also for the Super Falcons’ coaches.
“The money has come into the NFF account but it has to first go into our Treasury Single Account (TSA) before we can access it and then use it.
“The vouchers for the payment have already been done,’’ the statement quoted Pinnick.”
It further quoted Pinnick as saying that the NFF’s General Secretary, Mohammed Sanusi, and the Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, had also intervened at different points to explain the football house’s predicament to Siasia.
He said: “Siasia confirmed that before I spoke to him, the NFF General Secretary had also called him to explain the situation to him.
“We are not unmindful of what our coaches are going through in this challenging period and we praise them for their patriotism and hard work despite all these.
“I want to specially appreciate the Honourable Minister, Barrister Solomon Dalung, who had already dispatched accountants to the U-23 team hotel to pay the allowances of players and officials before I called the team.
“The Honourable Minister instructed the accountants to also pay the four alternate players, who are not accredited for the Games; we commend him for his efforts.”
Dalung and Pinnick have moved quickly to douse feelings of discontent in the Nigeria U-23 team camp ahead of Saturday’s Men’s Olympic Football Tournament quarterfinal clash with Denmark.
The Nigeria’s Dream Team, which won the event in 1996, were scheduled to have a feel of the Arena Fonte Nova, venue of the Olympics football quarterfinal match with Denmark, on Friday evening.
They had before then refused to train.
The Danes lost 0-4 to Brazil in their final group match on Wednesday, while Dream Team topped Group B in spite of losing 0-2 to Colombia in the last group game.
