The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has described as ‘unfortunate’ the incident that saw players and officials of the Senior Women National Team, Super Falcons delayed for over three hours at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on arrival from Abidjan.
The Super Falcons left Abidjan immediately after their 3-0 aggregate triumph over Cote d’Ivoire and considering their feat, it would be only expedient that they received a warm welcome back.
But that was not the case, as the team was not allowed to leave the airport for over four hours due to “Covid-19 testing issues.”
NFF General Secretary, Mohammed Sanusi, said inter alia : “It was an unfortunate incident because we had our protocol officers on the ground at the airport and they did the needful before the team arrived. We are a responsible organization and the various national teams have been going out and returning to Nigeria since these COVID-19 protocols, procedures, and guidelines started. We have never been caught napping.”
He continue: “The issue had to do with covid19 protocols and we had no control over how things would be approached by the officials in charge at the airport each time.”
“ In this particular case, we fulfilled our part of the requirements. However, some other group of individuals arrived at the same time as the Super Falcons’ contingent and were bent on circumventing the process, and this compelled the health officials to adopt stern measures and even lock up some of their offices.
“It was beyond us, but we have already apologized to our players and officials over this incident,” he added.
Meanwhile, President of NFF Amaju Pinnick has applauded the gutsy play “and general display of the Nigeria spirit” of the Super Falcons in Abidjan on Wednesday evening which earned Nigeria a spot at this year’s Women Africa Cup of Nations finals.