2016 AWC Protest: Super Falcons fail to apologise

Super Falcons have refused to tender an apology for the protest they staged in Abuja after the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) claimed they were broke to pay the team its allowances and bonuses for winning the 2016 Africa Women Championship (AWC) in Cameroon.

Since then, the NFF have not forgiven the players for their action which they claimed, was an embarrassment to the nation.

SportingLife.ng gathered that the players were asked to write an apology letter while in France for the friendly which they refused to do.

“One of the NFF officials who came for the match came with a draft copy from Abuja which was shown to the captain. All they wanted was for the girls to go through the draft copy and if okay by them, copy and sign. But when Rita told them (players), they told her it was not possible,” said the source.

The girls insisted they fought for their rights.

SportingLife.ng understands that the players said it is the NFF that should apologise for failing in its responsibilities.

“We are not babies who don’t know what is good for us. For how long are we going to allow them treat us like this? It is not right and we must talk,” one of the players told SportingLife.ng.

How would we look before those people that stood by us during the protest. Don’t you think we would let them down if they hear that we apologised. We just told them to forget about it,” the player continued.

“Already the players no longer trust the federation. Now they don’t even know when they would be paid their appearance fees by the federation for the friendly. They gave the girls 100 dollar and asked the girls to submit their account details which they did,” the source added.

After the protest, the NFF decided against inviting the girls for subsequent matches, but later changed its minds upon the appointment of Swedish coach, Thomas Dennerby, who insisted that the players were central to his plans.

Nigeria lost the friendly 8-0 to France.