The Nigeria U23 football team which is billed to face Honduras on Saturday, in the third place match of the football event for men may not win the bronze medal if they lose focus and get distracted by their quest for match bonuses.
This is based on the fact that the Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, has reiterated that match bonuses will not be paid to Dream Team, as they are only entitled to allowances and this has been paid already.
Dalung had further stated that bonuses are not paid at the Olympics and Common wealth Games, bonuses are only paid during the world cup and the African Cup of nations. But this seems not to have gone down well with the team who had long been expecting match bonuses.
If anything meaningful would come out from the third place match between Nigeria and Honduras, it has to be strictly from the commitment of the players and not based on bonuses or any form of motivation from the Sports Ministry.
Interestingly, football event will be Nigeria’s last hope of winning a medal at the Rio Olympics in case if athletics fails in the early hours of Saturday.
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