15th February, 2013
Kazeem Ugbodaga
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has splashed N54.5 million on members of the victorious Nigeria’s Super Eagles for winning the African Cup of Nations tournament in South Africa.
The governor also gave the supporters’ club N4.5 million for supporting the Super Eagles throughout the tournament.
Fashola, who hosted the Eagles at the Banquet Hall, State House, Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria today praised the team for doing the nation proud at the tournament and called on Nigerians to support the team in subsequent matches.
Fashola announced N2.5 million for the Head Coach of the Super Eagles, Stephen Keshi and N2 million for the immediate Assistant Coach of the team, Daniel Omokachi, while four other Assistant Coaches of the team got N1.5 million each.
The governor further gave each of the 22 players that did the nation proud N1 million and N1.5 million to the team captain, Joseph Yobo.
Fashola also gave out N15 million to the 11 backroom staff of the team and gave out N500,000 for each of the 11 goals scored at the tournament in South Africa. The money will go to the players who scored the goals.
The total sum of money given out by the governor to the team and the supporters’ club amounted to N59 million.
The governor reminded the team of their next World Cup qualifying game against Kenya in few weeks time and urged them to prepare adequately to do the nation proud in June at the Confederation Cup in Brazil.
He said the performance of the team had catapulted it to becoming the 4th best team in Africa and 30th in the world from the abysmal position it was before the tournament, adding that the team could improve on its FIFA rating as it was in 1994 when the Super Eagles was the 5th best team in the world.
According to Fashola, if the Super Eagles do well at the Confederation Cup, it would enhance the team’s seeding at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, if it qualified for the tournament.
The governor warned members of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF to stop interfering with the job of the coach, saying that the era “where people barged into the dressing room during the 15 minutes break to interfere in the work of the coach should stop immediately. The NFF should stop this act.”
Fashola said the team won the tournament due to the resolve of the coach to believe in the capability of the team to go far in the tournament, stressing that “everybody needs to support Keshi and anyone who becomes the head coach of the Super Eagles in the future.”
On the way forward, he said the NFF and the National Sports Commission, NSC had lots of work to do, to integrate a talent development programme, to hunt for new talents for future development of sports in the country.
The cup was formally presented to Fashola by the managing director of Guinness, Mr. Seni Adetu.