Falconets Pictured Sleeping On Airport Floor
After an impressive group stage win in Coasta Rica, the falconets were edged out by Netherland in the on going U-20 World Cup.
The Nigeria female team has always been on the receiving end of NFF incompetency. The senior team in 2019 in France Worldcup once protested to unpaid salaries and bonuses. The most recent protest was in july 2022 by the super Falcons in july where they deliberately missed training due to not payment of salaries and bonuses.
To add insult to injury the Falconets were pictured Sleeping on cold airport floor in Turkey.The players look abandoned players and this is not the first time we are witnessing horrendous experiences.
According to sources close to the team, players were provided with just three sets of the Nigerian green home kit and two sets of the white away kit.
Reports had it that players had to wash them with their bare hands after every game. And this ensured they couldn’t exchange jerseys with players from other countries. That wasn’t the worst.
Reports also has it that The NFF didn’t provide the girls with footwear despite having an official supplier for such kits and instead, asked the girls to spend their money to buy them.
The falconets went as far as borrowing money to buy Nike footwear and football boots.
The NFF also failed to pay the agreed $100 daily allowance due the girls but instead paid $50, which the girls spent on these kits. They were paid no bonuses despite winning three games in the group stages.
Little wonder they were so excited when Super Eagles captain, Ahmed Musa promised to surprise them.
According to sources close to the team, the players and officials of the team barely had three hours to sleep after their exit from the tournament by Netherlands as they were asked to move to the airport to return to Nigeria immediately.
They left Costa Rica to Colombia from where they connected Istanbul.
“We’ve been on a trip to Nigeria since 6:30am Monday. We are currently sleeping at the Istanbul Airport awaiting a 6pm Wednesday flight Istanbul time to Abuja,” as quoted by a source who begs to be anonymous.
Officials of the team stated that tickets were booked for Avianca for Tuesday but the official carrier of Colombia rebooked to Turkish Air.
This caused a four-hour delay in Colombia and in addition to a stopover in Panama, the team missed the already scheduled Tuesday flight to Nigeria by 30 minutes, and due to no fault of theirs. Some players and officials of the team had different dates – 23rd and 24th August on their tickets.
Leader of the NFF delegation, Ruth David pleaded with the airline for hotel accommodation but her pleas fell on deaf ears because the players and officials had no transit visas. And the players were forced to wait 24 hours in the Turkish Airport, and slept on bare floor. By the time they depart Turkey for Nigeria on Wednesday, they’d have spent almost 30 hours at the airport.
The players are expected to depart Turkey on Wednesday and when they arrive Abuja, they will be paid a meagre N40,000 each to reconnect to their respective destinations