The Nigeria Football Federation on Wednesday said that various factors, comprising the inability to secure transit visas for players and officials of the U20 Girls National Team, Falconets, at the Istanbul Airport, steered to the team having to sleep at the airport in Turkey on their way from the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup.
Nigeria Federation Football disclosed this on their website. The NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi revealed why falconets overstayed at the Istanbul Airport, Turkey.
He 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. “Our officials pleaded for compassionate transit visas to take the players and officials to a hotel inside the 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. The airline then took the team to a sleeping area at the airport and gave them tickets to have meals every five hours. This situation has nothing to do with NFF, who had made arrangements to receive the team in Abuja before the complications in travel arrangements,”