FIFA To Pay Super Eagles N5.6bn For World Cup Qualification
Nigeria will receive €12.2m (N5.6bn) from FIFA if they qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup later this year.
The Super Eagles are looking to qualify for their seventh World Cup appearance but they are two games away from achieving that feat.
They face the Black Stars of Ghana in the play-off to Qatar 2022, with the first leg billed for the Baba Yara Stadium on Friday (today), while the second leg holds in Abuja on Tuesday.
The governing body FIFA, it was gathered, has increased the qualifying bonus from €10m to €12.2m to help the qualified teams prepare well for the tournament.
The Nigeria Football Federation received €10m from FIFA when they qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Meanwhile, the build-up to the fixture has been spiced up by talk of the long rivalry between the two nations, dating all the way back to their first meeting in 1951, when the Nigerians romped to a 5-0 victory over their neighbours.
Nigeria have kept a clean sheet in each of their last three meetings in World Cup qualifiers against Ghana – winning one and drawing two, although they have failed to score in three of the previous four such meetings themselves.
Ghana remain unbeaten in their last five games against Nigeria in all competitions – winning three and drawing two.