Stranded Falconets to leave in batches for training tour of Canada

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Nigeria’s U20 Women team will leave the shores of the country in batches after dealing with flight problems ahead of their departure for Canada for the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup.

The team is having to leave the country in batches due to failure to secure seats on the airline ahead of their final training.

A delegation of 24 players and 11 officials were earlier reported aboard a Lufthansa airline from Abuja to Moncton, Canada enroute Frankfurt, but spokesman of the Nigeria Football Federation, Ademola Olajire who confirmed the development, told Goal.com the flight delay was due to logistics problem.

Olajire said the flight issue has been resolved with the Falconets’ contingent expected to depart Nigeria in sets in the next three days from Tuesday evening.

“Yes, they ought to leave on Monday, but we were told there were not enough sitting spaces. The problem was from Fifa and they have apologized for that. The situation has already been taken care of. They (Falconets) will leave Nigeria in batches.

“The team will travel between [Tuesday] through to Thursday,” Olajire explained to Goal.

In the same vein, head of the Nigeria contingent and Technical Officer of NFF, Siji Lagunju told Goal, the delay was just for a “minor problem”, which has been fixed for the Falconets to take-off on Tuesday.

“We were surprised too on the delay, because we had arrived the airport on Monday evening only to be told we could not go because there were not enough spaces.

“But, we were immediately told it’s not a serious issue, after the team secretary’s efforts,” Olagunju said to Goal.

The Falconets will face Korea, Mexico and England in Group C of the competition to be staged between August 5-24 in the North American nation.

The African side have featured in all previous Fifa U-20 Women’s World Cup finals and reached the final in Germany four years ago.