SHAMEFUL!! : NFF blames FIFA for Falconets’ plight in Turkey, reveals why players washed their kits

The Nigeria Soccer Federation (NFF) and the ministry of sports activities and youth growth have reacted to the viral images of Falconets sleeping on the ground on the airport in Istanbul, Turkey.

It was reported how the crew, which crashed out of the 2022 Girls’s U-20 World Cup in Costa Rica on Sunday, was stranded in Turkey on their approach to Nigeria.

A flight rescheduled led to a four-hour delay in Columbia and a sixty-minute cease in Panama which culminated within the women lacking their connecting flight again to Abuja from Istanbul.

With out transit visas, the gamers had no choice however to cross the night time on the airport.

Reacting in a joint assertion on Wednesday, the NFF and sports activities ministry claimed that the crew’s flight was booked by FIFA and never the federation since “the World Cup is a FIFA match.”

It added that the gamers couldn’t be handed transit visas as a result of “Nigeria had been faraway from the checklist of nations granted transit visas at Istanbul Airport.”

“The eye of the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports activities Growth has been drawn to viral photos of our feminine soccer crew, the Falconets making rounds, portraying them stranded on the airport in Istanbul, Turkey,” the assertion reads.

“For the explanation of setting the information straight, we thought to put the info naked. The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports activities Growth and the NFF DID NOT e-book the tickets. The World Cup is a FIFA match. FIFA booked tickets for the crew to journey from Bogota to Panama, however for some cause, the flight to Panama was delayed for 3 hours.

“There was one other 1-hour delay on the airport in Panama. By the point the crew received to Istanbul, the flight to Abuja had left.

“The NFF officers pleaded that the crew be given transit visas on the airport so they may head to a lodge within the city, however this was not doable as Nigeria had been faraway from the checklist of nations granted transit visas at Istanbul Airport. So, the airline took the crew to a sleeping space on the airport and handed them the tickets to have meals after each 5 hours.

“The Minister has reached out to the crew by way of telephone and video calls and they are going to be homebound quickly. It’s unhappy, however this has nothing to do with the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports activities Growth and the NFF, who had made obligatory preparations to obtain the crew on arrival in Abuja earlier than the flight hitches.”

In a separate assertion, the NFF additionally addressed the logistical downside suffered by the Falconets throughout the competitors.

It was earlier reported that with a restricted variety of jerseys assigned to gamers, the Falconets needed to wash their kits with their fingers.

However within the assertion, printed on its web site, the federation mentioned: “The gamers have been handed three units of inexperienced jerseys and two units of white jerseys, a number of house-wear varieties and coaching jerseys.

“The gamers opted to scrub solely their jersey high (no different stuff) as a result of when the primary set of body-wear was despatched to the laundry folks on the lodge, it returned with some FIFA and NFF badges on the entrance and names on the again peeled by the machine.”