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The Nigeria Soccer Federation, NFF, has denied being liable for South Africa’s delegation’s delayed arrival in Uyo for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier towards the Tremendous Eagles.
The South African delegation spent the evening in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, June 5 after arriving in Nigeria.
The gamers and their officers had been initially scheduled to depart Johannesburg at 8 am on Wednesday and land in Lagos to endure immigration formalities earlier than continuing to Uyo.
The chartered flight from Johannesburg was, nonetheless, delayed by 5 hours, affecting their journey plans.
The South African contingent solely arrived in Uyo on Thursday morning.
“The issue has nothing to do with the NFF. On the time they mentioned they had been taking off, it took them an additional 5 hours to truly depart from South Africa. We weren’t knowledgeable. We had knowledgeable officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service and different related businesses in Lagos to expedite motion on the formalities for them,” acknowledged NFF’s protocol chief, Emmanuel Ayanbunmi.
“It was lower than two hours to touchdown that they contacted us to say that the touchdown proper they received was for Port Harcourt Worldwide Airport and never the MMA in Lagos.
“We needed to rapidly get in contact with officers of NMS and different businesses in Port Harcourt and mobilise folks to make sure clean formalities for them.”
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