Sports
No Pay-Cut For Keshi –NFF
The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has denied reports that Stephen Keshi’s pay will be slashed, but admitted that a cut of his backroom staff is in progress.
Keshi has a contract from which he earns N5million monthly wages, in addition to other allowances, but with the NFF in dire financial straits, the body is implementing cost-cutting measures, and the coach’s wages was reported to be involved.
But a member of the NFF’s Executive Committee, Emeka Inyama has said that was not the case.
“Keshi has a contract that guarantees his salary so why should there be a slash? That would be a breach of contract on our part,” he told newsmen. “In fact, there is no contemplation of any such thing.”
Inyama did admit that the Federation had resolved to cut down the backroom staff from 17 to a more financially manageable nine.
“We need to keep it down in line with FIFA standards which specify how many officials you can actually have on the bench. So we are bringing it down from 17 to nine.
“We have talked about auditing of staff of the national teams, especially backroom staff, as well as pegging of bonuses and allowances.
“We are constrained to do this as a result of our poor finances and we believe that Nigerians understand we have to do this in order to continue to fulfil our obligation of presenting the national teams for international competitions and tournaments.”
Currently, each player receives $10, 000 for a win and $5,000 for a draw. The head coach and his technical officials get double what the players receive, while other staff get $8,000 and $4,000 for a win and draw respectively.
And for every day of camping, every team member is paid $100 daily allowance. Apart from the camping allowance, the bonuses are expected to be cut by no more than 50 per cent.
Enzo Fernandez was booed by some supporters on the day when Morgan Rogers scored on his first appearance for Chelsea in a 3-1 win against Real Sociedad.
Joao Pedro also continued his fine pre-season form with a double as manager Xabi Alonso offered a glimpse of what could be his blueprint for the season.
But the action was overshadowed by the reaction to Fernandez’s second-half appearance, less than 24 hours after Chelsea’s self-imposed transfer deadline had passed.
Fernandez had been keen to join Real Madrid earlier this summer before the Spanish club ended their interest in the Argentine.
His representatives later held talks with Manchester City, but no offer was made to meet Chelsea‘s £120m valuation before Friday’s deadline.
Fernandez was booed by some early arrivals at Stamford Bridge when his name was read out 45 minutes before kick-off.
There were then audible boos when Fernandez came on in the 62nd minute.
Chelsea supporters appeared divided, with others responding by chanting his name.
Yet, it was a signal of Alonso and Chelsea‘s backing that when Reece James left the field he passed his long-time vice-captain the armband as usual.
Each touch of the ball was greeted by a mixture of boos and cheers.
It followed attempts by some supporters to move on from a saga that appears to have ended with Chelsea now expecting to keep one of their best players.
Others, however, remain unhappy with his perceived disloyalty, having come out publicly about his desire to move to Madrid, with his agent Javier Pastore also claiming he is underpaid.
It will be interesting to see how supporters of the Premier League’s other 19 clubs react to Fernandez, given his celebrations and social media jibes after Argentina beat England in a World Cup semi-final in July.
That will remain an issue whether he remains at Chelsea or Manchester City elect to revive their interest and attempt to reunite him with his former manager Enzo Maresca before deadline day on 1 September.
It took Rogers only seven minutes to score his first goal in a Chelsea shirt as he reacted quickest after Alex Remiro saved Joao Pedro’s initial header.
The £117m club record signing from Aston Villa initially looked sharp and linked well with Cole Palmer and Pedro in Chelsea‘s front three.
Within 10 minutes of his debut, supporters were already chanting his name.
However, it was understandable that Rogers faded as the match wore on, given he had trained for less than a week since returning from holiday before his 62-minute outing.
Beyond Rogers, Joao Pedro has been the star of Chelsea‘s pre-season.
In this outing he headed Chelsea back in front in the 47th minute before adding a side-footed finish 30 minutes later to seal victory after Sociedad had equalised just before half-time through Jon Mikel Aramburu’s volley.
Chelsea lost control towards the end of the first half and looked vulnerable, but they were much improved after the break.
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