Amaju Pinnick, Gernot RohrBackpagepix

NFF queries Gernot Rohr over breach of contract

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has questioned Gernot Rohr for his anti-contract activities.

Coach Rohr recently revealed to some sections of the media about the lack of commitment on the part of Amaju Pinnick’s board.

According to the German, he is being owed over $100,000 while calling for respect in that regard.

However, that has not gone well with the country’s football ruling body and they are demanding for answers from Rohr for exposing to the public some aspects of his agreement.

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In his reaction to this development, NFF’s technical director Bitrus Bewerang has described it as “highly unprofessional”.

“In as much as we appreciate the work that Mr. Rohr has been doing with the Super Eagles in the past 40 months, his recent penchant for breaching provisions of the contract he signed with the NFF and the Code of Conduct for coaches is not good for the relationship,” said Bewerang as reported by NFF’s statement.

“The NFF wishes that Mr. Rohr continues in the job because of the team he is building for Nigeria which looks promising and has earned some good results since he took charge, but he cannot continue to nonchalantly cause the NFF as a body and Nigeria as a nation, reputational damage through his utterances and actions.

“As at today, the only money that the NFF is owing Mr. Rohr is the differential in his new contract (about $30,000) which our financial advisors have to align and interface with AITEO before payment (as the improved contract came into effect in the last half of the year), and which process was concluded on Friday last week.

“He will soon be paid. Mr. Rohr has talked about the bonus from the 2019 Afcon, which is not contractual but discretionary on the part of the Federation. The present NFF started the policy of paying players a percentage of tournament bonus during the 2018 Fifa World Cup just to motivate them, outside their bonuses and allowances.”

Gernot Rohr Nigeria press conferenceBackpagepix

He continued: “We did not pay any bonus for the 2021 Afcon qualifying matches against Benin Republic and Lesotho because we are in the process of negotiating with the players on a new template of bonus payments based on performance after qualification for championships. This is still being discussed.

“The NFF is very much alive to its responsibilities but will not tolerate disrespect for the body and the country Nigeria by anyone.

“NFF can never be happy owing coaches in its employ which is the reason why the present administration took the unprecedented step of putting in place a sponsor specifically to pay coaches’ salaries.

“Last week, we paid all the national team coaches and we are putting in place a mechanism to ensure we don’t owe them going forward. We commend Aiteo for its belief in the NFF and for always making funds available to pay the coaches.”

Nigeria finished third in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations staged in Egypt and currently lead Group L of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification with six points from two games.

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