Former Super Eagles captain Obi Mikel recently revealed he had to pay out of his own pocket for Nigeria’s flight to Brazil for the 2016 Olympic football tournament that took place in Rio De Janeiro.
During his podcast The Obi One Podcast, the former Chelsea midfielder said:
“When I represented my country at the Olympics in Brazil, we had to fly there, and we waited for morning till night, waiting for a plane to take us to Brazil.
“There was no plane to take us to Brazil because there was in-fighting behind the scene of who was going to pick up the tab.
“The FA didn’t want to pick up the tab, the government I think released the money, but the FA or whoever the money got into his hands refused to release the money.
“So we waited at the airport from morning till night but there was no flight. I had to pay for that flight to take us to Brazil.
“And these are little things.”
A previous account of the situation by a source also emphasized Mikel’s comments and even gave further insight into the debacle that nearly made the Nigeria Olympic team miss their flight to Salvador.
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 – eighteen players and seven officials.
The source also confirmed 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 Paulo. We nearly missed our flight because of unpaid bills in the hotel. The hotel held us to ransom,” a team official revealed back then in 2016.
“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 official continued while shedding light into the matter.
“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”, the official concluded the previous account of the conundrum.
Mikel and his team-mates ended up arriving few hours before the game against Japan which Nigeria won 5-4 amidst all the chaos that preceded the match.
The former Nigerian international had also revealed he spent over £30,000 while helping with travel arrangements, meals and booking training pitches for the 2016 Rio Olympics to save Dream Team VI from embarrassment at the tournament.
Nigeria ended up scooping the Bronze medal at the Olympic Football Games in Brazil.
Mikel also mentioned that in his playing days, there were occasions when the NFF chose poor hotels for the players, prompting him to pay for another hotel by himself.
“I had to sort out my hotel because the hotel they provided for us were so bad to stay in. I had to move to somewhere more conducive for players to perform”, Mikel added.
These revelations indicate the disorganization of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Nigeria Olympics Committee (NOC).
