The Technical Director of Nigeria Football Federation, Shuaibu Amodu, has warned the Super Eagles not to treat the Flames of Malawi with kids gloves as this might be very dangerous to Nigeria’s ambition of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.
The Eagles have a dare with Malawi on Saturday at the UJ Esuene Stadium in Calabar, Cross River State and Amodu wants the Eagles to take the match as do or die to get the three points at stake in the match.
Amodu, who spoke with sports reporters in Abuja on Tuesday, also urged the players to accept the $5,000 winning bonus the Nigeria Football Federation has concluded henceforth to pay as winning bonus.
He said: “What else do you expect the Malawian coach to say?
“He will come with his psychological warfare as usual and will try to throw tension into our camp.
“But I think we have gone past that and we should be more mature and more experienced to understand that he is just playing a mind game.
“However we should not take them for granted.
“Anything can happen in football.
“I cannot see them been a threat if all is well in ourcamp.”
The former Orlando Pirates Football Club of South Africa coach also appealed to the players of the Nigeria Super Eagles to see reasons with the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation that had said that they would no longer be able to pay the $10,000 bonus, urging them to accept the $5,000 which they have now proposed to pay.
Amodu opined that it is not professional for footballers to be in the habit of crying over issue of buses at every given time.
He said: “I like to beg everyone of us who is a stakeholder to play down on that, for obvious reasons.
“All of you know that $5,000 is not a small money.
“I am not saying that they cannot go more than that but if this is the position of the FA for now, since the players are
not playing football depending on the bonuses they earn from the national team, I think we should appeal to them to be more mature and to understand the situation, not only for the FA even for their own image.
“It is not good for them to come and be crying over bonuses here.”
The former Super Eagles gaffer also said that the bonus does not make any difference in the life of the players as several of them end up sharing the bonuses here in Nigeria before they go back to their bases abroad.
He said: “I know for sure that so many of those players get that bonus and they end up sharing it here before they leave.
“So, it’s not as if that is not what they depend on.
“So from that premise, we can appeal to their inner conscience to say look, gentlemen for the interest of this country, because NFF is not existing as entity, it’s an arm of government, and so by extension they are representing Nigeria and if the funds available to them can only permit $5,000, we are sure they can improve later if we progress in the competition but for now I think it should not be an issue.
“We should just plead with the boys to accept it and play for Nigeria as they have always done.”
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