Eighteen-Eleven Media earlier today reported the abandonment of the Nigeria U20 female national team players at the Istanbul, Turkey airport allegedly by officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), but the body says it should not be blamed for lapses.
The football governing body in the country, in a statement, gave its side of the story.
The statement in full.
For the 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 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.