TheCable

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has been ordered by FIFA to pay Gernot Rohr, former Super Eagles head coach, nearly $400,000 as compensation for sacking him before the end of his contract.

According to BBC, the directive was issued by the FIFA tribunal saddled with the case.

The federation sacked Rohr in 2021 and had agreed to pay the gaffer’s salary until the end of his contract, which expires in December 2022.

The Franco-German, however, escalated the case to the football’s world governing body, while also demanding $1 million in damages for breach of contract without just cause.

According to the ruling, the FiFA players’ status chamber decided his claim was “partially accepted insofar as it is admissible” and ordered the NFF to pay $377,879.46 to the gaffer.

It also added that the compensation must be paid within the next 45 days, or FIFA will sanction Nigeria.

“If full payment (including all applicable interest) is not made within 45 days of notification of this decision, the respondent [the NFF] shall be imposed a restriction on receiving a percentage of development funding, up until the due amounts are paid,” it read.

According to a top NFF official, the federation will not be appealing the decision because the “sum basically reflects whatever is left to pay him as previously agreed until the end of December 2022.”

The latest ruling comes just one week after FIFA sanctioned Nigeria for the crowd invasion that followed the failure of the Eagles to qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup.