caught their flight to Salvador after the hotel in Sao
Paulo held the entire team to ransom.
Players and officials of the Dream Team VI, were held to
ransom in Sao Paulo, over unpaid bills incurred by
additional officials.
Organizers of the Games, insisted on a team of 25
players – 18 players and seven officials.
A source confirms that it was the responsibility of the
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), to offset the bills of
the extra five officials.
“We just arrived Salvador now from Sao Paolo.
We nearly missed our flight because of unpaid
bills in the hotel. The hotel held us to ransom,” a
team official told AfricanFootball.com.
The problem is that all the additional officials
here in Brazil are the responsibility of the Nigeria
Football Federation, who said they will pay for
them, but they did not pay for them again. “The
affected officials included the team’s media
officer, the team coordinator, the kits manager in
charge of players and officials’ kits and the
accompanying assistant director technical.
“A call was put across to the honourable minister
of youths and sports, he said we should put the
bill in the (credit) card but the card didn’t work.
They tried and tried but the minister said that
only 18 players and seven officials should be
captured as regards payment according to the
rules of the Olympic Games.
“So, the hotel bills of these other officials, about
five of them cost the sum of over $4,000. They
held us hostage for more than one hour and we
nearly missed our flight. It was Mikel (Obi) who
rescued us by paying the money.
“I can tell you honestly speaking that this
incident is not the fault of the minister because
the minister listed the people to be
accommodated which were 18 players and seven
officials.
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