Chelsea's Mikel John Obi has revealed he pumped more than £30,000 into Nigeria's Olympics bronze medal campaign.
The 29-year-old said the Nigeria Football Federation failed to provide meals, facilities or transport to and from training for the squad while they were out in Rio.
It followed a hurried arrival in Brazil after a flight mix-up left the players just hours to prepare for their opening match against Japan.
"I think if we talk about the money that I put into the team I think it was more than [£30,000]," Mikel told Goal. "But we just had to do it.
"I said to myself, 'I won’t let this happen. If I can help, I’ll try to help'. Sometimes there was no food, sometimes there was no pitch to train on, there was no bus to go to the training ground. So all of this was what me and the coach had to figure out, and get money together.
"I came to the camp. I sat down with the boys in Atlanta and I could see the frustration, the pain and the anger. Their aim was to play in the Olympics, their goal was to play in the Olympics.
"And for me being there and seeing what they are going through, they are young boys, they want to start their career and someone in the ministry is trying to crush that dream."
Two victories in the group stages and a quarter-final victory over Denmark saw Nigeria through to the semis, where they were beaten by Germany.
But a 3-2 win over Honduras in the bronze medal match ensured the Nigerians beat the odds to clinch a spot on the podium.
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Mikel added: "We had lots of problems outside the pitch, but I always told the boys that you shouldn’t let that affect what we came here to do. We still want to achieve what we came here to do. We still have to represent our country and play for ourselves and our family and the people of Nigeria.
"So if the ministry don’t want to take responsibility, we have to make sure we play for ourselves and our country. The boys understand that and we made sure they went along with my message that I kept putting across to them every single day and we managed to achieve what we did achieve."
