Why Falconets Slept In The Open At Istanbul Airport – NFF

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has given an explanation on the reason why the U-20 Women’s national team, the Falconets slept in the open at Istanbul airport, Turkey.

The Falconets had participated at the ongoing U20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica before they were eliminated. Nigeria succumbed to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of the Netherlands early Monday morning.

While the players and officials of the team have departed the Costa Rica since Monday, they are yet to arrive Nigeria.

Meanwhile, pictures have emerged on social media, where players are seen sleeping on the floor at the airport.

Reacting to the viral photos, the NFF General Secretary Dr Mohammed Sanusi explained the reason for the ugly situation. He said inability to secure transit visas for officials and players led to them staying several hours at the airport.

Dr Sanusi said: “The NFF did not book the team’s tickets from Costa Rica; FIFA did. 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.

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“Our officials pleaded for compassionate transit visas so as to take the players and officials to a hotel inside 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.”

He also said the airline later took the team to a sleeping area at the airport. He added that the airline gave them tickets to have meals every five hours.

The NFF official stated that the situation had nothing to do with NFF. He said “the NFF had made arrangements to receive the team in Abuja before the complications in travel arrangements.”

It would be recalled that the NFF had asked FIFA to intervene with the German Embassy to issue the team transit visas before their departure from Nigeria in order for them to travel through Germany but that did not happen.

Speaking on the matter of the players’ body wears, 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.”