Former Super Eagles striker and Africa Cup of Nations winner, Brown Ideye, has criticised Nigeria Premier Football League giants Enyimba over what he described as poor welfare conditions and erratic bonus payments during his brief time at the club.
Speaking on the Bet9ja Home Turf podcast, the 36-year-old, who joined Enyimba in December 2024, expressed frustration over the treatment of players, particularly regarding daily allowances and match bonuses.
“At Enyimba, we were receiving N7,000 a day. Sometimes N8,000. It’s not even stable. One day it’s N7k, another day N8k,” Ideye revealed. He added that the money is typically sent to the team captain, who then distributes it to players during away games. The payments, he noted, don’t even cover basic needs like meals or other essentials.
“If we had a game on Sunday and travelled on Friday, they’d pay N7,000 for Friday and Saturday, but on match day, Sunday, you’re on your own. No allowance,” he said.
The former West Bromwich Albion, Dynamo Kyiv, and Olympiacos forward was also critical of the club’s bonus payment structure, describing it as disorganized and unreliable.
According to Ideye, players do not receive match bonuses weekly or monthly, but only at the end of the season — and even that is based on arbitrary decisions by club officials.
“The worst part is you don’t get your match bonus weekly or monthly. They accumulate it and give you at the end of the season,” he lamented. “It depends on what the captain, chairman or director agree on before the season. There is no fixed structure. If it’s a game they really want to win, they may raise it to N30k or N40k. But on average, it’s N15k, sometimes N10k.”
He further noted that players who don’t make the matchday squad receive even less — around N5,000 — as a token bonus.
Ideye, who helped Nigeria win the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations and has featured in top leagues across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, described the conditions he met at Enyimba as “unbelievable,” adding that the experience highlighted the broader systemic problems within Nigerian club football.
“When I got there, that’s what I met on ground. I couldn’t believe it,” he concluded, urging clubs in the country to take player welfare more seriously and implement proper structures that reflect professionalism.