Monday 27 March 2017

Nigeria’s Monday friendly with Burkina Faso cancelled over visa problems

Super Eagles of Nigeria


The Super Eagles were to face Burkina Faso in a friendly game on Monday, March 27 at the Hive (home of Barnet FC) in London, where they played a 1-1 friendly draw with Senegal on Thursday, March 23.
For the friendly game against Burkina Faso, seven players from the Burkinabe contingent failed to gain visas to enter the United Kingdom.
Burkina Faso

"The match in question is called off due to no fault of either the organisers or the Nigeria Football Federation. We will announce further plans for the Super Eagles' preparation for these two important qualifying campaigns in due course," top Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) official Chris Green told BBC Sport.
"There is no British Embassy in Ouagadougou, and officials of the Federation Burkinabe de Football had been shuttling between Accra and Ouagadougou for visa processing," the NFF explained in a statement.
"FBF (Burkina Faso Football Federation) sources said the Embassy in Accra told them last week to proceed to Morocco (where The Stallions played the Atlas Lions on Friday) and that the visas would be issued there.
Super Eagles
"However, the applications were still pending at the British Embassy in Morocco as at close of work on Friday, the last working day before match day in London.
"The Burkinabe Football Federation - on Friday 24 March 2017 by 7 pm UK time - telephoned the match organisers [Eurodata] to say some of their players and officials were unable to secure entry visas into the United Kingdom and therefore would not be able to honour the match."
The Super Eagles trained on Friday evening and Saturday morning after their 1-1 draw with Senegal.
The NFF are making arrangement fore the Super Eagles to play a clubside instead.
Credit to Pulse.ng

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