Revealed: How sharing formula stalled Sunday Mba’s Bastia deal

After failing to secure a move to Europe, the midfielder returned to Abuja on Monday. Goal reveals what went down in France and why the player’s progress has now been stalled

Goal can authoritatively reveal that it was sheer greed on the part of Nigerian club officials that cost Super Eagles midfielder Sunday Mba the opportunity of kick-starting his professional football career in France with modest French Ligue 2 club CA Bastia in a two-year-deal said to be worth around €1 million.
The fans of Bastia had thronged out to welcome the Africa Cup of Nations hero to their city when he arrived last week. They screamed his name every time he was seen through the window of his hotel room:  “We love Sunday Mba” and “Welcome to Bastia Sunday Mba, we love you,” they shouted. He had begun to feel at home.
But the hope of having the 25-year-old play for their darling club ebbed near European transfer deadline day when the midfielder left France when he realised that forces beyond him would not allow him make progress.
Mba jetted back to the country on Monday and moved to the Metropolitan Hotel Camp of the Super Eagles in Calabar on Tuesday after his Bastia deal was thrown to the trash can by the Warri Wolves officials and other two prominent partners involved in the deal.
Goal discovered from a prominent contact who was privy to the contract and it was discovered that the sharing of the €150,000 involved as transfer fee was the major cause of the deal not materializing in the first place.
Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi allegedly demanded for €50,000 from the deal which Warri Wolves boss Amaju Pinnick perceived was too much and believed that the remaining €100,000 won’t be enough for him and Emmanuel Ibru, who was also involved in the sale of the player, to share.
Ibru was involved in the controversial transfer of late Super Eagles defender Olubayo Adefemi before he joined Skoda Xanthi.
They all disagreed on Mba putting pen to paper for Bastia unless the transfer fee was jacked up to at least €600,000 so that they could have enough to go share.
The player, though not happy, couldn’t help the situation. According to a close friend of his, Mba sobbed uncontrollably in his hotel in France because he had already started feeling at home in Bastia as a result of love and affection shown to him by Bastia fans.
Goal can also authoritatively reveal the terms of agreement Mba could have signed with Bastia as follows:
If Bastia gains promotion to Ligue 1, they have the right to buy Sunday Mba at a preferential price of €800,000 minus the amount they have already paid while a bonus of €100,000 will be given to Warri Wolves, Mba’s club.
Also a partnership deal of 2 years will be agreed between the two clubs (Bastia and Warri Wolves) to organize friendly games and trials at Bastia for the best players of Warri Wolves. This agreement will work at the moment they maintain their place in the league or get promoted and the contract can be renewed every 2 years.
The player also cannot be sold for less than €800,000. In the case where he is sold on to another club, Warri Wolves would be given 50 per cent of the fees.
In case the player is injured for more than 4 months, Bastia have the right to release him and have to give him back to Warri Wolves without asking for their money back and don't have to pay the rest of the money due.
In case CA Bastia get relegated, Sunday Mba will go back to Warri Wolves as being specified in the contract that Mba couldn’t sign.
With the failure of Mba to move to Europe this summer, it is yet to be seen how this would affect the career of the player who helped Nigeria to victory at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.