Nigeria’s Falconets have reportedly been left stranded in Turkey after losing their match at the ongoing FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica.
According to reports, the team was left stranded at the Istanbul’s airport for 24 hours, and had to resort to sleeping on the airport seats and those who couldn’t get a sleeping spot on a chair, managed the bare floor.
Sources say that “the situation got worse as they have no transit visa to enable them secure accommodation.”
It was also learned that the team was given very little equipment for the competition, including just three pieces of their green home kit and two sets of their white away gear. As a result, the players were forced to hand-wash their jerseys after every game and were unable to switch their jerseys.
Even worse, even though the NFF has a supplier for official sports wear, the ladies were not given official boots and were instead made to purchase their own sports shoes.
The players, who only receive a daily match allowance of $50 and no extras, had to take out loans to buy Nike shoes and playing boots.
Falconets won all three of their games in group C to gain a maximum of nine points, but Netherlands defeated them 2-0 in the quarterfinals to end their laudable performance.
