Youth and Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, has called on the Nigeria Football Federation to pay the Under-23 national team’s coach, Samson Siasia.
The Minister gave the directive when Siasia paid him a visit on Monday in his office in Abuja.
Siasia had visited with his wife, Eunice to thank the Minister for his support to the Dream Team from Atlanta to Rio, where they won Bronze in the football event of the Rio Olympics and to officially inform him that his contract with the NFF has ended.
Dalung, however, directed the NFF Secretary-General, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, who was also present to ensure that Siasia gets the arrears of his five month’s salaries.
“Please pay him his five months’ salaries. They said he has resigned but he just said that his contract expired after the Olympics. His contract expired, but you owed him five months’ salaries. Yet, you have gone to employ a foreign coach and will pay him in dollars. It means you don’t like yourselves and nobody will sympathise with you.
“Please spare me the stress of talking about this salary issue or going to war with you on it. Please pay him and other coaches their outstanding salaries,” Dalung said.
The Secretary-General of the NFF, Dr Sanusi, however, said that efforts were already being made to pay the coaches their salaries.
“We have held meetings and we are waiting for the money to drop. The money is already there in our account but we need to regularise the TSA procedures before we can claim the money. We are almost through with the process. Once that is concluded, we will pay them,” Sanusi assured.
The Minister is expected to be on an NTA Programme Tuesday Live with Coach Samson Siasia on Tuesday to review events leading up to Rio and Nigeria’s participation at the Games.
