NFF should revisit match bonus policy for age grade teams to arrest decline – Manu Garba

Former coach of Nigeria’s U17 national team Manu Garba has called on the Nigeria Football Federation to consider reviewing its policy on the age-grade national team not having match bonus citing this as one of the factors behind the sudden decline in age-grade national team outings with Nigeria’s hope at the ongoing WAFU U17 hanging on a thin line.

He stressed that perhaps the time to reconsider this is now.

“I think the issue of this match bonuses, the NFF needs to revisit that. It motivates these players a lot. Most of these players are breadwinners of their families and once you come to the national team and you go back empty-handed they may not be motivated t give their best, unlike our days when wearing the national colour is a thing of pride.”