It was another show of shame again by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) after shoddy logistic arrangements for Nigeria’s women U-20 team, Falconets, leading to the players sleeping at the Instabul airport for over 20 hours.
According to reports and pictures circulating on social media, the team has been traveling since Monday and are currently sleeping on the floor at the airport in Turkey till their connecting flight back to Nigeria.
The team had a 24-hour layover in Turkey, with no hotel accommodation.
It would be recalled that the Falconets were eliminated in the quarterfinal of the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica by Netherlands despite qualifying from their group with a 100 per cent record.
However, in a quick reaction, the NFF has exonerated itself from the long travel arrangement of the Nigeria Women U-20 team, Falconets, from the venue of the ongoing FIFA U-20 Women World Cup, Costa Rica.
Apart from the hitches that affected the team’s return to Nigeria, there was report of the players getting $50 per day as camp allowance (no bonuses or wages).
It was also said that the NFF didn’t provide footwear for them, they had to buy themselves (they borrowed money), and their travel allowance for local transportation on arrival is expected to be N40,000.
Speaking in a statement, the General Secretary of the NFF, Mohammed Sanusi, said world football governing body, FIFA, actually made the arrangements for the team.
“The NFF did not book the team’s tickets from Costa Rica; FIFA did,” Sanusi said.
“FIFA also did not envisage the hitches that saw the team delayed for more than three hours in Bogota, and another one hour in Panama. By the time the team got to Istanbul, the flight to Abuja had left.
“Our officials pleaded for compassionate transit visas so as to take the players and officials to a hotel inside the town, but this was not possible as they were informed that Nigeria had been removed from the list of countries whose citizens were issued visa-on-arrival in Turkey.
“The airline then took the team to a sleeping area at the airport and gave them tickets to have meals every five hours.
“This situation has nothing to do with NFF, who had made arrangements to receive the team in Abuja before the complications in travel arrangements.”
On the issue of body-wear, Sanusi said: “The players were handed three sets of green jerseys and two sets of white jerseys, several house-wear types and training jerseys. The players opted to wash only their jersey top (no other stuff) because when the first set of body-wear was sent to the laundry people at the hotel, it returned with some FIFA and NFF badges at the front and names at the back peeled by the machine.”
