By Daily Sports on August 4, 2016
The Nigerian Olympic football team were initially scheduled to leave for Rio last Friday. Departure was then moved to Monday, and then Tuesday, and then Wednesday and at the last check (last night at 8pm), the players were still in their hotel rooms in Atlanta.
To make matters worse, and as expected, the morale among the Dream Team as they are fondly called, is at the lowest in a long while, with some players threatening to return to their various clubs if they fail to make the trip to Brazil today as again promised by the sports ministry.
One player who didn’t want to be named relayed that ‘“this is nonsense. What are we supposed to do now? Just sit in America when the Games are happening in Brazil? We don’t even know when we are leaving and I tell you if we don’t leave today, I will just pack my bags and return to my club.”
The team’s preparation camp has been rife with problems, most caused by inadequate funding and shoddy planning. For instance their final tune up game against Honduras was scrapped when the team could not travel to the game site. In the meantime the Hotel bills and food are already being picked up the by the Nigerian Community in Georgia, while they wait on the Sports Ministry to respond.
Further news from Georgia this morning is that the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has now waded in and along with sports Minister Dalung, are both working diligently behind the scenes to make sure the team departs for Manaus where they take on Japan in the wee hours of Friday morning. One source revealed that a Delta Jet had now been hired and that departure would take place at 7am EST. The flight time from Georgia with one stop for refueling in Panama City Costa Rica, is calculated to be a little over eight hours long.
•Gotten from supersports.com. Photo shows Vive President Yemi Osibajo
Source Daily Sports
Posted August 4, 2016
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