A much lower proposal of 150,000 Naira per player of the victorious Golden Eaglets has been tabled by the sports ministry after a proposal of N750,000-a-player was rejected by the country’s Presidency as “too much”.
It has already been reported that the federal government has rejected an initial proposal by the sports ministry to reward the Eaglets after they won a fifth FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile last month.
This week the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has warned that next year will be rough for the country because of the poor economy and has moved to cut back drastically on government spendings.
It would therefore be seen as double standards if the government now splashes a fortune on the schoolboy stars.
“The proposal has been reviewed after the first rejection. We wait for the green light from the presidency on the date for the reception and the reward,” a sports ministry official disclosed.