Coach Samson Siasia has dedicated the Dream Team VI’s victory at the just concluded u-23 Africa Cup of Nations in Senegal to his mother.
In an interview with Brila FM on Monday December 14, the ‘Sia-One’ also disclosed that the coaching crew are yet to receive their allowances.
“I dedicate the victory to Nigerians, those who were praying for us, and my mother, who came out of the den of those people who kidnapped her, and the President. This is like a Christmas present to Mr. President,” he posited.
Asked if it was true the players threatened to boycott the final game due to unpaid allowances, Siasia said: “That was the true picture. We didn’t get anything for one year. We need to tell the truth so that we can have changes in the sports sector.
“You know in Nigeria, people always try to hide the truth because they don’t want to offend somebody. If things don’t change, we cannot improve. For one year, we didn’t get allowances; we didn’t get any bonuses, no training kits but we kept quiet about it.
“We know what we’ve done to preserve the country’s name. We managed the jerseys we had and hide ourselves sometimes just because if this country fails, we’ve all failed.
“But it gets to a point, you can’t handle it anymore. Of all the teams that came to Senegal, it was only our team that didn’t have anything to wear. We kept on managing what we had.
“We tried our best not to embarrass our country but it is really too much. We cannot continue like this. From the way we prepared, we were not supposed to win anything.”
It would be recalled that Siasia’s mother in the early hours of November 28,regained her freedom after spending close to two weeks in a kidnappers’ den.
Madam Ogere Siasia, 72, was kidnapped from her house in Odoni village, Sagbama local government area of Bayelsa state, by armed men who stormed the family’s house in the early hours of November 16.
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