Nigeria squad’s ‘horrible expertise’ getting back from Underneath-20 Girls’s World Cup

Footballers and officers from Nigeria are seething after enduring a “horrible expertise” returning to Abuja from the Underneath-20 Girls’s World Cup.

Knocked out of the event by the Netherlands on Sunday, the Falconets confronted connecting flight delays in Panama and Colombia earlier than touchdown in Turkey on Tuesday, after their onward flight had already departed for Abuja.

Pictures of the group “sleeping tough” have been circulated broadly on social media, prompting the Nigeria Soccer Federation (NFF) to launch a press release exonerating itself for the chaotic journey.

“Who booked the flights is irrelevant as a result of our horrible expertise in Turkey was avoidable,” one of many U20 gamers, who wished to stay nameless, informed BBC Sport Africa.

“They would not allow us to depart the airport as a result of we had no transit visas and the airline mentioned they may not be answerable for passengers who missed their flights.

“Somebody was speaking with completely different individuals, and for some causes they would not put us up in lodging in one of many airport resorts. We have been sleeping tough on the terminal ground and a few on the chairs as a result of the following flight to Abuja was scheduled for Wednesday.”

The NFF claimed that world governing physique Fifa had booked flight tickets again from Costa Rica, and visa points meant the gamers couldn’t depart the terminal in Istanbul to journey to a lodge.

A Fifa spokesperson mentioned the organization helps organize journey in co-ordination with groups which exit its competitions previous to departure, however connection and visa points are exterior its management.

The under-fire NFF mentioned it additionally tried unsuccessfully to rearrange visas to journey via Germany to and from the U20 Girls’s World Cup in Central America, and that Fifa was not in a position to intervene.

It’s not the primary time the NFF has been within the information for transport points involving the nation’s girls’s sides.

Again in February, the senior squad suffered in depth airport delays on their return to the capital metropolis after securing a spot on the 2022 Girls’s Africa Cup of Nations.

On that event, points with Covid-19 checks arose and the NFF mentioned it had “no management over how issues can be approached” by airport officers.

Extra money issues for Nigeria’s girls

The U20 girls’s group was met on the airport by the NFF basic secretary Mohammed Sanusi and Toyin Ibitoye, a consultant of the nation’s sports activities minister.

“Nigerians appreciated all of your effort on the event in Costa Rica, however we’re saddened by the truth that in your manner again you needed to sleep on the airport,” Sanusi mentioned.

“This was past our management. The association was achieved by Fifa, and also you knew what occurred higher than us.”

An apologetic Sanusi additionally promised the gamers that their excellent bonuses can be paid when the senior aspect obtain theirs.

The Tremendous Falcons boycotted coaching earlier than their third-place play-off towards Zambia on the Girls’s Nations Cup final month over the non-payment of allowances and bonuses.

Every member of the squad continues to be owed over $10,000 regarding their time on the event in Morocco and different coaching camps.

“The cash accepted for the Tremendous Falcons is on the (Sports activities) Ministry being processed and we will pay you from there,” Sanusi mentioned.

“We need to guarantee you that the identical time the Tremendous Falcons are going to be paid, you’re additionally going to be paid your [qualification] bonuses.”

Regardless of receiving a money present from the ministry, one other U20 participant mentioned the squad are sad about how they’ve been handled and are sceptical about whether or not they are going to be paid in full.

“After the horrible travelling expertise, a number of the gamers complained of physique pains on the flight from Istanbul,” she added.

“Now that we want our unpaid bonuses, it is one other promise that we are going to be paid later. When that fee is coming, the gamers do not know.

“Somebody even mentioned we must always attempt to gather our cash now earlier than the NFF board depart workplace, or it’ll find yourself as one other empty promise.”