Assistant coaches for Nigeria’s U17 team, the Golden Eaglets, have rejected a 350,000-monthly pay, top officials have disclosed.

The Eaglets chief coach is Manu Garba, while his assistants are Emmanuel Amuneke, Nduka Ugbade and Emeka Amadi.

A top official said,“The head coach for the Eaglets is on 750,000 Naira, while his assistants are to be on 350,000 Naira each, but they have turned down the offer.”

Both John Obuh and his immediate successor, Monday Odigie, received 150,000 Naira a month as salary.

And their assistants were on 40,000 Naira allowances each a month.

This rejection is believed to have stalled the start of a training camp for the country’s schoolboys as the assistant coaches are insisting on at least 500,000 Naira a month.

Three-time world champions Nigeria have failed to qualify for the last two African Junior Championships.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) are therefore hard pressed that this trend is reversed and that the country’s flag is hoisted at the next edition of the tournament slated for Morocco.

In the meantime, former Ethiopia coach Tom Saintfiet has received the blessing of the NFF technical committee to become Nigeria’s new technical director.

The appointment of the 38-year-old Belgian is expected to be endorsed by the NFF executive committee during the federation’s AGM in Kaduna before the end of the year.