Top Bayelsa Utd Stars Boycott Gateway Match

Some of the influential players at titleholder, Bayelsa United, refused to travel with the side for its Week 28 Premier League game against relegation-bound, Gateway Football Club in Abeokuta on Monday.

Captain of the Nigerian champion, Kola Awe, told Naijaligue.blogspot.com in Abeokuta on Monday that the side travelled with only 17 players for the game.

He also revealed that most of the players that travelled for the game were fringe players of the side, as the top stars refused to travel in protest of outstanding debt owed them by the club.

Awe added that the situation at the club has grown from bad to worse, as no player had received contract fees since 2008 and blamed the club’s lack of challenge in the top-flight to lack of financial incentives from the Bayelsa United management.

“Only 17 of us travelled for this game and many of the players that made sure that we won the league are not here with us because they are angry that the club owes them so much money. Imagine most of us being owed our signing-on fees since 2008, and yet they want us to give our best. That is not possible.

“Seriously we have very good players that can compete with any club in the country but the problem has been lack of money to pay us our signing-on fees in the past two years,” he lamented.