George Burley feels that international federations should meet their players' wages when they are away from their clubs. Burley recently lost Nigerian international Finidi George for over a month when he was away with Nigeria at the African Nations' Cup in Mali.

The Blues' boss said: "Finidi was required by Nigeria for the African Nations' Cup and warm-up matches that preceded the tournament. Is it right that Ipswich should be paying his full wages all that time? Shouldn't the Nigerian FA pay a share? If national associations were liable for such cost then perhaps they would think twice before taking players away for so long."

Even without the additional expense of paying massive wages to their European stars the Nigerian FA recently had trouble finding the money required to pay bonuses their players had earnt by qualifying for the World Cup.

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