Former Nigerian international striker Chenido Obase said he was asked to pay a bribe if he wanted to join his country's squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, which was denied by a member of the technical staff during that era.

Obasi is currently 33 years old, and has not been associated with any team since his departure from the Swedish Ike team in January. During his career, the striker defended the colors of several clubs, most notably Hoffenheim and Schalke 04, and played his last international match with the Nigerian "Super Eagles" team in 2011, after he participated in the World Cup in South Africa 2010, and crowned the silver medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"I was supposed to participate in the 2014 World Cup ... I was with Schalke at the time and we were competing in the Champions League, and everything was fine," Obasi said during an interview on social media this weekend.

He continued, "At the end of the season, I was invited to the squad for the two friendly matches (in preparation for the World Cup) in South Africa," but "two days before the squad was announced, I was asked to pay a sum of money if I wanted to be with the team."

Obasi did not specify who requested the payment, and the player, who was not eventually called up to the squad that participated in the 2014 World Cup, confirmed that he refused to pay.

"I felt that I had done what I needed for my country ... if I was a new player you could understand that, but for me, it was personal and heartbreaking," he said. He indicated that his absence from the World Cup prevented him from completing his transfer to the Premier League.

However, Valver Hodono, a member of the Nigerian national technical staff during the Brazilian World Cup, confirmed that the exclusion of Obasi was due to his decline and the presence of emerging players in the offensive line at the time.

He said, "The question at the time was about his positioning any of the attackers (...) he was invited (to friendly matches) as any potential player to be included in the World Cup squad, because the technical staff wanted to take the best players to Brazil .. He failed to join the squad because he did not He can remove one of the national team. "

But Daniel Amocashi, the former international player who was also part of the technical team for the 2014 World Cup, saw that corruption in the game locally is not limited to officials, but rather includes players and their agents as well, without referring directly to the Obasi case.

"The issue of paying bribes or taking bribes in our soccer ball is not a one-way road ... agents of some players come to meet the coach and offer him money to include their clients (to the squad)," Amocashi said.

"This is a two-way road ... Sometimes players come to the coach and tell him: My agent will pay if I join the squad," he said, without excluding coaches and officials from being involved in such practices.

Nigeria is seeing investigations of corruption allegations against senior officials of the Football Association.