As the home-based Super Eagles of Nigeria were eliminated from the African Nations Championship in Rwanda after losing their final Group C fixture 1-0 to the Syli Stars of Guinea, head coach, Sunday Oliseh, has blamed lack of financial motivation for his team’s shock exit, adding that he had no other choice but to spend his own money to keep the team together.
He said in an interview on Brila FM on Thursday morning,
"I spent $4,000 to feed the team because the food in camp was not good enough. I used my personal funds to get the team going for the interest of the nation.
We have family men who have been working hard for 50 days, but who couldn’t afford to buy a anything. It was unbearable. And now they are going back home with nothing to give to their families."
Meanwhile, the players have praised the head coach for his fatherly role, insisting that they were able to weather the storm at the tournament in Rwanda as a result of the non-payment of their salaries and bonuses due to the coach's intervention.
It was learnt that the players are yet to be paid their camp allowances right from where they started camping in Abuja. The players were not paid their bonuses either, and they gave lack of motivation as the major reason why they failed to make it beyond the group stage in the competition.
One of the players told Complete Sports Nigeria;
"We are lucky to have a nice person like him (Sunday Oliseh) as our coach. We suffered a lot in South Africa as we couldn't eat the foods they served us at the hotel.
But the Coach made sure we concentrated on the competition by spending his personal money to buy food for us. His intervention at that stage was crucial for us as it kept us alive. May be, we could have gone back to Nigeria then, if not for his magnanimity."
Another player also praised the former Ajax Amsterdam of Holland midfielder for his kindness.
"Coachie na baba (Coach is our father). He spent his personal money to make sure we all prepare adequately for the competition. It's unfortunate that we couldn't win the competition for him."
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