FIVB championships: Polish embassy denies Nigeria’s teams visa

The Nigeria Volleyball Federation on Friday said the Polish Embassy in Abuja has denied Nigeria’s under-23 male and female beach volleyball teams entry visas to Poland.
The teams were to participate in the FIVB U-23 Male and Female Beach Volleyball Championships in Poland from June 10 to June 15.
Musa Nimrod, the Chairman, NVBF’s Beach Volleyball Commission, who broke the unpalatable news, said in a telephone interview the act was discouraging to the federation.
Nimrod said: “What happened to us this (Friday) evening was a disaster, because it is discouraging to ensure that teams qualify for championships only to be denied visa to participate.
“The federation has put in all efforts to be one of the teams at the championships, and that was why we put in all our energy to ensure that we qualify.
“But it is unfortunate that it turned out this way.
“And this is the second time this Polish Embassy is denying us visa.
“My question now is: why are they (Poland) allowed to host the championships when they will not grant visas to participating countries?
“I think the Foreign Affairs Ministry has to come into this because it is discouraging to go through everything and our hopes will be dashed later.”
Nimrod disclosed that Sierra Leone suffered the same fate of visa denial with Nigeria.
Coach of the Nigerian teams, Chakuma Ismail, said however that they had not lost all hopes yet.
Ismail said the NVBF President, Alhaji Habu Gumel, had already sent letters of protest to the appropriate authorities.
He said: “We went through the interview process yesterday (Thursday) and today (Friday) as required, but at the end of the day we were given letter of ‘visa refusal’.
“Although, there is nothing I can do to salvage the situation as the coach, we still have hopes that we can make it to the competition.
“The NVBF President, Habu Gumel, has already sent letters of protest to the Federation of International Volleyball and the Confederation of African Volleyball.
“And we are told to expect replies between today and tomorrow (Saturday).
“So, we have returned to training at the Jabi Lake.
“If everything can be sorted out latest by tomorrow, we can still travel on Sunday to participate.
“So all hope is not lost yet.”
In 2013, the Polish Embassy denied the under-23 teams visa to be in Poland to participate in that year’s edition of the World U-23 Beach Volleyball Championships.
The Nigerian team was also denied visas by the Croatian and Portuguese embassies to take part in the U-21 and U-19 beach volleyball championships in Croatia and Portugal respectively.