African champions, Nigeria, flew into Sao Paulo just before midnight on Saturday and will be the last team to arrive at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup tournament in Brazil.
Earlier scheduled to arrive on Thursday, the Super Eagles are 48 hours late after a stand-off with Nigeria football authorities on bonuses payable, despite a mutual understanding with the team’s Management on a 50 per cent cut.
A miffed but concerned Nigeria Football Federation had promptly contacted Sports Minister, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, when players and officials refused to leave their Country Club Resort Windhoek for a scheduled flight from Namibia to Johannesburg on Thursday, thus missing their connection to Sao Paulo from South Africa.
The Sports Minister immediately contacted the Presidency, and despite his pledge to personally bring the balance of the money to Brazil, Coach Stephen Keshi insisted his players would only leave Namibia if the money arrived in the southern African nation.
On Saturday, a first batch from Windhoek to Johannesburg inexplicably missed their flight, but Team Administrator Enebi Achor, who was in the second batch, worked hard to ensure that batch eventually arrived in Johannesburg early enough to retain seats on the connecting flight.
“We are all on the same flight. Everything’s sorted out now,” Achor said on telephone from Johannesburg.
The delegation flew aboard a South African Airways flight SA 224, Airbus 340-600 from Johannesburg to Sao Paulo, and were expected to connect another flight to Belo Horizonte that would touch down in that city at 4am on Sunday.
On board were 22 players and 10 officials.
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