Nigeria’s Football Team Is Stuck in Atlanta—And Their First Match Is Less Than a Day Away

Despite being fresh of their flight from Atlanta, hopefully Nigeria's football team will be game ready for their match against Japan Thursday.

Antoinette Isama
August 03, 2016

Nigeria’s set to play their first prelim football match against Japan on Thursday, and you’d think they’d be rested; even explore Rio a bit before they compete—right?

Nope.

They're still in Atlanta.

Because of a flight booking snafu, a source close to the Nigeria Football Federation tells BBC the sports ministry payment for the charter flight did not hit the airline’s account Tuesday, which resulted in their refusal to fly the team to Brazil as scheduled.

The process seems to be prolonged by the payment having to go through different bank accounts and currency conversions, which the NFF recognizes is a process that should’ve started much earlier, although they claim this issue has nothing to do with the NFF as an entity.

The source also tells BBC that “everyone in the NFF was ‘disturbed’ by the situation because Nigeria’s first game against Japan in Manaus is so soon.”

After speaking to a few players, BBC says it’s still unclear when they’ll be en route to Rio.

“We’ve been told to get ready to fly out in a few hours, but that’s been the story since last week,” one of the players explains.

But, deep breaths. It was 20 years ago today that the Super Eagles became the first African and non-European or South American team to win the gold medal, so despite this slight EP aka Enemy of Progress, do they stand a chance to bring the gold home again? Check out the highlight reel of that moment below.

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