The Nigeria women’s national under-20 football team, popularly known as the Falconets are currently stranded at the airport in Istanbul, Turkey.
The players who represented Nigeria at the FIFA under 20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica were left stranded at the airport following their shocking exit from the tournament after losing to the Netherlands.
A source squealed to us that; “Falconets are sleeping in the departure hall of the Istanbul airport. They have been there for over 20 hours and by the time they depart the airport at 6.15pm on Wednesday, they would have spent close to 30 hours in that departure hall.”
“They departed their hotel in Costa Rica at 6.30am local time on Monday, they were to travel via Colombia to Istanbul for the flight to Abuja. Alas, that simple journey has turned into a nightmarish experience.”
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“The story is that the schedule on the original ticket stated that the team would depart Colombia for Turkey at 4.30pm, following their early departure from Costa Rica.”
“However, the Colombia, and subsequently led them to missing the transit flight. But even then, some members of the contingent had tickets with a 23rd and others had 24th.”
“Some of the officials present with the team pleaded for accommodation; but the airline insisted that since they don’t have transit visas, they would not be allowed to step out of the airport.”
“According to Collins Udoh, despite the NFF having an official kit supplier, the young ladies were not supplied official footwear and were asked instead to buy their own footwear.”
“And so the players – who are only getting paid $50 as daily match allowance and no bonuses – borrowed money to buy Nike sneakers and playing boots.”
“Which way is Nigeria? This is not the end when they arrive in Abuja. The players have been given N40,000 each as local transport allowance.”