Nigerian football may be engulfed by a fresh crisis if players union group, Association of Professional Footballers in Nigeria (APFON) succeeds in getting the Super Eagles to go on a solidarity strike over the 550 million naira debt being owed local players and coaches plying their trade in the nation's domestic league.
APFON which has tried in vain to get the clubs to pay the home lads has resolved to woo Super Eagles players to go on a solidarity strike as a way of making both the Nigeria Football Federation and other stakeholders to get the clubs pay their players and coaches.
Daily Sunsports gathered that APFON officials have been drawing the attention of Super Eagles players to the plight of their colleagues at home and the need to act in a manner that would jolt those running the game in the country.
"The NFF and the clubs think it will continue to be business as usual, but we are going to shock them soon very soon. We are working on a lot of options including getting the Super Eagles players to down tools when they come home to play. We are sure of getting the players to back the strike option because it is their colleagues that are suffering while the administrators, most of whom never kicked even ordinary orange are smiling to the banks," an APFON official stated.
He pointed out that the strike option by national team players worked in a South American country leading to the mass resignation of the soccer federation. "That is the kind of soccer revolution that will soon happen in Nigeria and it may end up sweeping away these bunch of mediocres that are presently messing up the game in the country," he said.
It would be noted that the players union had only last week called for the resignation of NFF president Alhaji Aminu Maigari for failing to protect the interest of the players. APFON scribe Mr. Austin Popo in a statement described the present NFF board as being anti- players. He pointed out that a board that can't implement it's status and that of CAF and FIFA has no business running the game.
It is recalled that Bayelsa United players last week took to the street of Yenagoa to protest the non payment of their sign on fees for the past three seasons. Ex-international, Coach Sylvanus Okpalla on his part is being owed over 8 million naira by the management of Rangers. In fact , virtually all the clubs in the country are owing their players monies running into millions of naira.
Source: The Sun News On-line | Sports (http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/sportsonthehour/2011/may/22/sportsbreak-22-05-2011-001.html)