If you follow global soccer, you know this is not an unusual story.

Nigeria’s national team today refused to leave its hotel in Namibia because the Nigeria soccer federation had not paid the players the money they were promised for recent successes in international games.

How is this possible?

Because the Nigeria federation is broke or corrupt — and possibly both. Like lots of the world’s federations and clubs.

Players not getting paid is endemic in Africa, but it happens in many places around the world. Asia, for example. Even here in the UAE, where some clubs have been months in arrears in paying players. (Though all were eventually paid.)

Even in Spain, where some clubs are in economic crisis, some money came late in recent seasons.

And this ticks me off.

Federations, in particular, should not make promises to players they cannot or will not keep. Lies and deceit in the hope that players will compete even harder than they normally would, and then when they achieve a result — for country and federation — no follow-through. It is exploitative. It is a lie. It is evil.

So, how did Nigeria’s players deal with this?

Fortunately for them, they had some real leverage.

As champion of Africa, Nigeria is playing in the Confederations Cup, a Fifa event which begins Saturday, in Brazil.

And the players had to be savvy enough to know that their federation screwing with them would end abruptly if they made clear they were not going to Brazil without getting paid, forcing Fifa to run the Confederations Cup with seven teams instead of eight, and minus three Nigeria games that would not happen.

You do not need a vivid imagination to conjure a tableau of how this went down, in Zurich, when Fifa officials found out about 1) Nigeria’s team on the ground, in Namibia, because 2) the Nigeria federation had reneged on its promises.

Probably within five minutes some Fifa honcho was on the line to the president of Nigeria’s federation, promising to rain down holy hell on Nigeria soccer till the end of time if the players were not paid immediately.

Funny, how federations react when Fifa calls.

The organization is not just the corrupt old guys so many of us imagine. When it comes to pushing recalcitrant national federations — or even national governments — the threat of Fifa sanction stampedes malefactors into action.

Fifa can be a force for good; it does have positive moments. And many of them involve things like this. Also, when governments interfere with federations, trying to pack the federation with cronies or interfering with elections, which can (and has) led to Fifa bans.

Even the most vile dictators inevitably yield to Fifa threats/punishment because even the most vile dictator could be overthrown if his country were not allowed to play in Fifa-sanctioned competitions. (Evil governments can starve their own people, kill their people, but they do not screw with Fifa.)

Fifa’s caller probably didn’t even have to get to the serious threats — ban from World Cup qualifying, ban from internationals of any sort — before Nigeria’s federation caved and they found the $100,000, or whatever, in the bank account of some kleptocrat and sent it to the players.

Nigeria’s guys got on a plane, and are due to arrive in Brazil on Saturday, with their first game two days later.

Not an ideal situation, to cross an ocean and play two days later, in Belo Horizonte, after three flights, but at least they are en route.

Maybe one or two of their players will play well enough to get a contract with a big club. One which pays on time, we hope.