The Federal Government has budgeted N3bn to enable the Super Eagles have a successful outing at the 2018 World Cup  in Russia.

Sports minister, Solomon Dalung, told  State House correspondents after  his closed door meeting  with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Tuesday that  while sponsors and partners would raise part of the money, the substantial part of the “conservative budget” would be provided by the government.

“We have a conservative budget of about N3bn but out of that,  FIFA is going to raise about N900m; our sponsors and partners are also going to bring about N600m. Government will conservatively raise about N2bn or N2.5bn to complement,” the minister said.He said plans were underway to ensure that the players got their allowances upfront latest by March 2018.

Dalung  said,  “One of the challenges we have been facing in sports administration is the welfare of the players and the officiating team and we intend to set a new approach to the question of welfare.

“By March, we intend to start paying the players their allowances, camping allowances upfront. That will go a long way to boost the morale and confidence of the players.