The Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung has ordered the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to pay the salary of Nigeria’s U-23 coach Samson Siasia.
Siasia who led the Dream Team VI to a bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games recently quit his post over unpaid salaries.
The Dream Team VI coach said in an interview that he no longer wanted to be involved in what he described as “a disrespectful system’’.
He visited the office of the Dalung on Monday, August 29 where the minister charged the NFF to avoid trouble by paying the salary of the coach.
“Please pay him his five months’ salaries. They said he has resigned but he just said that his contract expired after the Olympics,” Dalung told the NFF’s Secretary-General Dr Mohammed Sanusi who was also at the meeting.
“His contract expired but you are owing him 5 months’ salaries and 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.”
Siasia who was in the in the company of his wife Eunice was at the office of the sports minister to inform him of his resignation.
Speaking after Dalung’s order, Secretary-General of the NFF Dr Sanusi assured Siasia that all efforts are being made to pay him his 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,” Sanusi said.
“We are almost through with the process. Once that is concluded, we will pay them.”
The NFF are yet to comment on the resignation of Siasia.
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