Nigeria’s football team to the 2016 Rio Olympics are yet to arrive the games due to delay in flight arrangements.
The team is presently stuck in Atlanta, USA – where they had gone for training ahead of the competition, after the chartered airline refused to leave until full payments were made.
The team’s opening match is against Japan on Friday morning, and they have less than 36 hours before kickoff.
A source at the Nigeria Football Federation, in a BBC report, blames the delay on a ‘logistical mix-up’ with operators of a charter aircraft.
The source said, “The Nigerian government [sports ministry] is responsible for booking the tickets for the team to travel but we heard there is a logistical mix-up with payments.”
“The money paid by the ministry for the charter flight did not hit airline’s account on Tuesday so they refused to fly the team to Brazil.”
“It is a cumbersome exercise but they should have started the process much earlier, which NFF was pointing out. This issue has nothing to do with the NFF.”
Nigeria is in Group B alongside Sweden, Colombia and Japan.
Dolapo is a writer and journalist who works with YNaija. He has interests in Christianity, politics and sports.
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