It was another show of shame again by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) after shoddy logistic arrangements for Nigeria’s women U-20 team, Falconets, leading to the players sleeping at the Instabul airport for over 20 hours.

According to report and pictures circulating on social media, the team has been traveling since Monday and are currently sleeping on the floor at the airport in Turkey with 15 hours still to go till their connecting flight back to Nigeria.

The team had a 24-hour layover in Turkey, with no hotel accommodation.

It would be recalled that the Falconets was eliminated in the quarterfinal of the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica by Netherlands despite qualifying from their group with 100percent record.

However, reacting the Nigeria Football Federation’s Director of Media, Mr Ademola Olajire, said the federation had no hand in the travel arrangements of the team since it was a FIFA event.

In a WhatsApp post on Wednesday morning he wrote: “For reason of setting the records straight, this is what happened. NFF DID NOT book tickets.

“The World Cup is a FIFA tournament. FIFA booked tickets for the team to travel from Bogota to Panama, but for some reason, the flight to Panama was delayed for 3 hours. There was another 1 hour delay at the airport in Panama.

“By the time the team got to Istanbul, the flight to Abuja had left. The NFF officials pleaded that the team be given transit visas at the airport so they could head to a hotel in the town, but this was not possible as Nigeria had been removed from the list of countries granted transit visas at Istanbul Airport.

“So, the airline took the team to a sleeping area at the airport and handed them tickets to have meals after every 5 hours.

“It is sad but this has nothing to do with NFF, who had made necessary arrangements to receive the team on arrival in Abuja before the flight hitches.” (Text, excluding headline: New Telegraph)

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