Edo Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, yesterday said that players of Bendel Insurance Football Club and Edo Queens Football Club would now receive the same salary.
Shaibu made this known in Benin shortly after a training session with the Bendel Insurance FC, as part of their preparations for the Nigeria National League (NNL) season.
“We are going to unveil the newly-purchased jerseys for both teams on Wednesday. What we intend to do as instructed by Gov. Godwin Obaseki, is to ensure that there is no discrimination between the male and female teams.
“Bendel Insurance standard and that of Edo Queens are going to be the same. There will be no gender discrimination among them in terms of welfare, in terms of salary.
“At the end of the day, we will discover that Edo Queens will be the highest-paid female team in Nigeria. That is what we want to achieve.
“We are putting both teams on the same scale.
“The male team had not been able to get to the semi-final of the FA Cup for over 12 years but Edo Queens had been in the semi-final for the past four years,’’ he said.
According to him, Edo Queens have not gone on relegation.
“Why do we now pay Bendel Insurance more than them. Is it because they are girls?
“So we decided that we have to upgrade them to the same level.
“For Bendel Insurance to earn more than Edo Queens, they must prove that they are Bendel Insurance,’’ Shaibu said.
Edo State is gradually regaining its pride of place as the bedrock of Nigerian sports, as the state is set to among other things, host the next edition of the National Sports Festival, Edo 2020.
Already, the Old Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City, has been rebuilt into an Olympic stadium ahead of the 2020 National Sports Festival.
