Tales of woe from Falcons camp

The players who spoke with nigeriasports.com on the condition of anonymity for fear of being witch hunted by the NFA staffers in South Africa said they have never had it so bad since they started playing for the national team.

“This is cruelty of the highest order. They brought us here to suffer and it is not fair. How do they expect us to win the championships under these kinds of conditions?” a player said.

“We have not yet been paid. On Saturday they asked us to take five hundred dollars each for our winning bonuses but we turned it down because in the last Championship the team received one thousand dollars each at this stage.”

The players said, the NFA staffers in South Africa begged them not to tell any one about what is going on with the team in South Africa and at a time threatened to seize the mobile phones of the players.

“It is not good what they are doing to us. It is as if they brought us here to suffer. In Athens we did not receive match bonuses yet they wanted us to beat Germany and Sweden, now they have started again. The situation is really bad here.”

Regret absence of Akide, Mabo

“We do not have enough jerseys and in training we exchange shirts as if we are boys because we have no training bibs. It makes us realise that that was why they dropped our foreign based players and Coach Mabo who they know would not have taken all this.”

“If Mercy Akide was here would she sit back and let the NFA treat her like this? No wonder they omitted her name claiming she needed to rest.

nigeriasports.com can authoritatively report that, the players morale is at an  all time low as things are not right with the team.

The food is bad and a couple of them have suffered from acute diarrhoea.

Cries of Boycott in the air

In a meeting held by the players late on Saturday night it was resolved that if things do not change by Wednesday, they would boycott the final match.

“The NFA have done their best to keep us in this state that they would not wish for their children and we would make way for them to play the final match if we make it against Ethiopia.”

According to the players, the presence of Sam Kaalu, the NFA’s Public Relations Officer is meaningless to them because he did not bring any money for the team.

The Nigerian team are already the laughing stock of the South African Media who see it as shameful that the country cannot take care of their team in a competition as big as the African Women Championships.