Nigeria will face Gabon at the Complexe Sportif Prince Heritier Moulay Al Hassan in Rabat by 5 pm on Thursday.
The Super Eagles have returned to training in Rabat, Morocco, ahead of Thursday’s 2026 FIFA World Cup African playoffs semi-final against Gabon after resolving issues affecting their match bonuses with the Nigeria Football Federation, PUNCH Online reports.
Media officer of the team, Promise Efoghe, disclosed this on Wednesday.
“Issues resolved. Super Eagles to train at 5 pm,” Efoghe announced to journalists in an official WhatsApp group.
Eric Chelle’s men boycotted what would have been their second training session on Tuesday in protest of unfulfilled promises by the NFF over their entitlements.
With the development, the Super Eagles would have had only one training session with the entire squad before the crucial game.
Although they had 16 players in camp on Monday, only 14 took part in their full recovery session as the Sevilla duo, Akor Adams and Chidera Ejuke, sat out.
Tuesday’s boycott became public knowledge, a few hours before what would have been their second training session in Rabat.
“The full squad, including officials, withheld from training today (Tuesday) in Morocco because of unresolved issues with outstanding payments.
“The Super Eagles are awaiting a quick resolution to continue preparation for Thursday’s game with Gabon. Thank you. From the players,” the players said in a joint statement shared by BBC Journalist Oluwashina Okeleji.
According to reports from Morocco, the players and officials have since been in negotiation with the NFF and the National Sports Commission, before a compromise was reached.
Although details of the meeting haven’t been made public, NFF president, Ibrahim Gusau, in an interview released on Wednesday, has also clarified the bonus row.
“It’s not true that we have owed for 30 matches. Immediately after the AFCON last year, we sat down with the leaders of the team and we negotiated.
“So, before we came back to this year’s qualifiers, we reached an agreement with them and everything was cleared. So, if there is any outstanding we have with the Super Eagles, it has to do with the qualifiers, and these qualifiers we are playing, we, the NFF and the National Sports Commission, have reached an agreement with them. It’s not an issue of after the match we give you a match bonus, let’s go if we qualify, we are giving you so so amount of money.
“So, it’s not an issue of after every match; this is the match bonus we are going to give you, and they agreed. So anytime they are coming now, we just give them an appearance fee, which we have been doing through the National Sports Commission,” Gusau told Elegbete TV.
Nigeria will face Gabon at the Complexe Sportif Prince Heritier Moulay Al Hassan in Rabat by 5 pm on Thursday.
– PUNCH