Nigeria’s Olympics football team, otherwise known as the Dream Team, will arrive the venue for their opening tie in the Rio 2016 Olympics against Japan three hours before kick off.
The team, according to our source, will depart Atalanta, United States of America at 8am American time, for a seven hour 12 minutes flight to Manaus., Brazil.
The Eagle Online checks revealed that the Samson Siasia-led team would land in the western Brazilian city of Manaus with three hours to spare ahead of their Group B clash against Japan.
Their delay, according to reports, was caused by a payment mix-up between the Sports ministry and a charter airline company.
Nigeria’s players had initially thought they would be leaving Atlanta on Wednesday morning. However, when they boarded a flight that their sports ministry had booked with a charter company, it was not large enough to carry all of the players, so they disembarked.
A solution was eventually found when the group made contact with another airline, Delta, which was able to provide an aircraft.
Delta spokesman, Anthony Black, said the company flew the plane into Atlanta on Wednesday evening from Cincinnati, and prepared it overnight for the Nigerian party to use.
The company arranged for landing clearance with Manaus airport officials.
The Eagle Online also gathered that the Sports Ministry coughed out a whopping sum of $250,000 for the chartered flight.
The team was initially meant to spend 18 days in Atlanta preparing for the Olympic Games.
It however ended up spending 39 days following paucity of funds and proper coordination by the Ministry of Sports and the Nigeria Football Federation.
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
