Things weren’t going well for the Nigerian football team when they were stuck in Atlanta, in the US, a day before they were due to play Japan in their first Olympic match.
They eventually arrived in Manaus, northern Brazil, just six hours before kick off, the New York Times reports.
BBC reports that “But it didn’t seem to put them off their game and they won 5-4.”
The team’s media officer has been sharing videos of the experience on the flight, which looked very relaxed:
Mr Ebikagboro said the Nigerian government helped out in solving the problem
And Delta Air Lines says it stepped in to provide the team with a charter flight after the players were unable to book on a flight to Rio.
The company has been promoting its role in saving the Nigerian squad:
Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, had disassociated himself and the Federal Government from the pretournament camping trip to the USA embarked upon by the Dream Team ahead of the Olympic Games.
Dalung, who surprisingly described the trip as a human trafficking venture maintained that his ministry and by extension the Federal Government knew nothing about the trip.
He insisted that the team’s suffering and threat to throw them out of hotel in US was news to him.
“We don’t know who took them there and what their mission is. Were you told that they informed the ministry when they were travelling to US?
“So, before you ask us to account for something, you should be sure that we are aware of the situation in the first place.
“There are very serious instances of people approaching us requesting for visas to travel when they are not going for anything that has to do with the federation. They want to traffic Nigerians. If somebody has a birthday of his friend and he moves his team to play for him, you cannot compel me to account for them.’
“If they have thrown them out of the hotel, they should know who took them there. So, what is happening in USA is a story to me.”
