Nigeria’s Olympic football team has been grounded in Atlanta, the United States (U.S.), hours before their first game of Rio 2016 due to an unsettled flight bill.
The Super Eagles will play Japan in their Olympics opener on Friday at 1am GMT, meaning they are cutting it extremely fine to make it to Manaus in time for the game.
The issue seems to stem from currency conversions from numerous bank accounts and a source close to the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) told the BBC that the Nigerian government is to blame.
“The Nigerian government (Sports Ministry) is responsible for booking the tickets for the team to travel,” the source said. “But we heard there is a logistical mix-up with payments.
“The money paid by the ministry for the charter flight did not hit the airline’s account on Tuesday so they refused to fly the team to Brazil.”
The same source says the process was started far too late with a member of Samson Siasia’s squad revealing they are still in the dark about when they will arrive in Brazil.
“We’ve been told to get ready to fly out in a few hours but that’s been the story since last week,” said the anonymous player.
If Nigeria can make it in time, they will face Sweden, Colombia and Japan as they look to win their second gold medal after triumphing at the 1996 games, ironically in Atlanta, Georgia.
Meanwhile, NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, has absolved the Federation of any blame, following the inability of the U-23 Eagles to travel to Brazil in time for the Olympics.
Amaju said it is not the responsibility of the Nigeria Football Federation but that of the Nigeria Olympic Committee to ensure the team travel to Rio without hindrances.
“Kindly note that it is the responsibility of the NOC to move the team,”Amaju wrote on his Twitter handle on Wednesday. “The transfer system in the banks is very slow. We are working seriously with the ministry and now it will be okay.”
