by Staff Reporter

A pay row has erupted involving one of Africa’s two surviving teams at the 2014 World Cup Nigeria after they refused to train on Thursday as they demanded they be paid $30,000-a-man for reaching the knockout stage of the tournament.AfricanFootball.com can specially report that based on their agreement with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), they were paid a total of $15,000 for the first round with the breakdown being $5,000 for the goalless draw with Iran and $10,000 for the win over Bosnia-Herzegovina.They were not paid for losing to Argentina.However, the players are now demanding that they be paid a win bonus for the draw with Iran as well as for the 3-2 loss to Argentina as they have reached the last 16.“The team are just being unreasonable. They agreed for match-by-match bonus and not to be paid for qualification to the knockout stage. So why should they now be making such a demand?” asked a top official who did not want his identity to be revealed.A demand for appearance fee by the team was only resolved when the NFF agreed to pay them 30% for featuring in the first round of the World Cup.But on Thursday, Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi dismissed suggestions they have a standoff with the country’s authorities over cash with skipper Joseph Yobo insisting that the whole focus is on victory over France on Monday in Brasilia.Two other African representatives, Ghana and Cameroon, who have exited Brazil 2014, were also overtaken by pay demands.Cameroon got paid from borrowed cash before they boarded their flight to Brazil, while the Ghanaian government flew in $3million on a special chartered flight to Brazil to avert a national embarrassment.