News broke
during the past week that
Courtney Dike had refused to
collect the $7000 bonus that
accrued to her from being a
member of the Nigeria Women
U20 side that reached the final of
the tournament in Canada.
Dike scored two goals for Nigeria,
including the tournament’s fastest
ever goal, as the Super Falcons
finished in second place behind
Germany at the 2014 Fifa U20
Women’s World Cup.
A presidential bonus offered to
her was rejected according to a
Nigeria Football Federation official.
"When we called her mother to
confirm the delivery of the
allowances, she declined it and
insisted that the opportunity of
playing for Nigeria was all the
reward the family needed,” said
Mohammed Sanusi, the NFF’s head
of competitions.
The 19-year-old student of
Oklahoma State University only did
the right thing in the
circumstances due to her status as
an amateur athlete on a
scholarship, according to rules
governing the National Collegiate
Athletics Association (NCAA) in the
United States.
Among the rules for amateur
athletes under the NCAA, Dike
could not have accepted the
$7000 given to her by Nigeria
because amateurs are not
supposed to be paid “salary for
participating in athletics” neither
are they allowed to be paid “prize
money above actual and necessary
expenses” among many other
rules on the NCAA website.
Hence, Dike’s decision, which has
split opinion in the Nigerian
community, was not, to spite the
NFF and neither was it about her
being more patriotic than other
Nigerian players that accepted
their bonuses.
According to sports management
expert Patrick Omo-Osagie, if Dike
had accepted the $7000 bonus,
she would have had bigger issues
like losing her almost $35,000
annual scholarship which enables
her to attend the Oklahoma State
University and play for the
Cowgirls.
“The $7000 is considered as
payment for her sport; the only
way she could have taken that
money and not be in violation of
NCAA regulations, is to have taken
the money as a daily allowance
during the competition,” wrote
Omo-Osagie on his Facebook
page.
“NCAA rules are very funny and
unfair, but the payment was so
public that if she took it or her
family took it, it will be a violation
of NCAA rules and she will be
sanctioned or might even loose
her athletic scholarship.
“She did the right thing for
rejecting the money and we
should praise her for that, for she
did not try to break the rules she
signed on. If the money was
refused for any other reason
besides NCAA rules, then I need to
know.”

Source: http://m.goal.com/x/en-ng/news/5970331

no fit happen 4 9ja....

laurel03:
no fit happen 4 9ja....

Lol

thegoodjoehunt3:
The reason she gave was that her school coach would be angry with her for accepting such huge amount of money at her age

https://www.nairaland.com/1979164/courtney-dike-rejects-u-20-allowance#27680851

She already said she rejected it because of her coach. That means her coach told her not to take the money because he understood the rules. I do not think she planned to pretend to do it because of patriotism.

Her parents rejected the money politely.

'she said that playing for Nigeria was a huge honour' in an earlier news