Players of the Nigeria national team have rejected a pay structure which sought to remunerate players per the minutes they play.

The Nigerian Football Association (NFF) proposed a new format which would have seen players of the Super Eagles paid based on their minutes spent on the pitch during the qualifying round of the World Cup.

However, captain of the side John Mikel Obi and his other teammates quickly rejected the proposal from the FA, preferring to stick to the old payment format.

With the old format, though, all players will receive equal bonuses irrespective of whether the played or not in the qualifiers.

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“Mikel and the rest of the team out rightly booted out a proposal brought forward by one of the NFF vice-presidents that they should now be paid the bonus by the number of the minutes they played in the qualifiers,” an official of the NFF is quoted as saying by Starr Sports.

“That would have meant some of the players who were called up but never got to play will not benefit from the bonus.”

Another official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, argued that “to be paid according to playing time will bring desperation in the team, against team spirit, and the players rejected this”.

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The latest development means Super Eagles players will receive $15,000 for every win in the group stages of next year’s World Cup in Russia.

Nigeria qualified to the World Cup after topping a group containing Algeria, Cameroon and Zambia.