Outrage greeted viral pictures of the Nigeria women under-20 team sleeping at the floor of the airport in Turkey on their way back from Costa Rica where they took part in the FIFA Women U20 World Cup.
The team were knocked out by the Netherlands 0–2 on Sunday and set out for Nigeria four hours after the game but as at today, four days after their exit they are yet to arrive Nigeria.
Yesterday pictures of the team sleeping in Turkey where they were supposed to take a connecting flight to Nigeria made it way to social media and went viral, as usual it brought a lot of criticism on the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Reacting to the pictures and accompanying stories, the head of communication of the NFF Ademola Olajire defended the football house saying travel arrangements were made by FIFA. He said the girls were made to sleep at the airport because Turkey, where they stopped on transit has removed Nigeria from the list of countries eligible for transit visa.
Below is his statement.
For reason of setting the records straight, this is what happened. NFF DID NOT book tickets. The World Cup is a FIFA tournament. FIFA booked tickets for the team to travel from Bogota to Panama, but for some reason, the flight to Panama was delayed for 3 hours. There was another 1 hour delay at the airport in Panama.By the time the team got to Istanbul, the flight to Abuja had left.
The NFF officials pleaded that the team be given transit visas at the airport so they could head to a hotel in the town, but this was not possible as Nigeria had been removed from the list of countries granted transit visas at Istanbul Airport.
So, the airline took the team to a sleeping area at the airport and handed them tickets to have meals after every 5 hours. It is is sad but this has nothing to do with NFF, who had made necessary arrangements to receive the team on arrival in Abuja before the flight hitches.
