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Nigeria’s Super Eagles will travel on Thursday from Fes to Marrakech ahead of their quarter-final match against Algeria at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), following the resolution of a bonus dispute that had threatened to disrupt the team’s preparations.
The Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Shehu Dikko, confirmed the development, saying the players had resumed normal activities and were set to depart as scheduled.
“First and foremost, I tell you, the team trained yesterday, definitely. The team will be travelling today, definitely,” Dikko said on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.
Reports had earlier emerged that the Super Eagles were unhappy over the delay in the payment of match bonuses and were considering boycotting the quarter-final tie. Dikko, however, said the issue had been exaggerated and was due to routine administrative processes.
He explained that President Bola Tinubu approved the team’s AFCON 2025 budget on November 14, 2025, but that the release of funds required processing through the Ministry of Finance, the Office of the Accountant General and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“Let me give you the timelines of how the issues work. First and foremost, I must tell you that Mr. President, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, duly approved the special budget for the AFCON as far back as November 14, 2025,” he stated.
“But approving the money is different from getting the money out. It takes time for the money to be processed through Finance, the Office of the Accountant General, and the CBN.”
According to him, the players have received their daily allowances in cash, as earlier agreed, while match bonuses have been approved and are expected to be paid in stages.
“It’s normal for players to ask when alerts will come. But I don’t think any player made any public statement. It started from speculation,” he stated.
“The players will start getting alerts maybe today or tomorrow for the first-round matches, and as they progress, payments for subsequent stages will follow.”
Nigeria, winners of the AFCON in 1980, 1994 and 2013, dispatched the Mambas of Mozambique 4-0 in the last-16 to set up a mouthwatering clash with Algeria.
That game is a rematch of a 2019 AFCON semi-final tie with the North Africans. The Super Eagles lost 1-0 after a stunning free kick from Riyad Mahrez as Algeria went on to win the competition in Egypt.
