Former Super Eagles captain John Mikel Obi has revealed that he personally funded Nigeria’s Olympic football team’s flight to the 2016 Rio Games.
Recently, Mikel was in the news for his criticism of players with dual nationalities who fell back to African nations after failing to get called up by European countries.
The former Chelsea midfielder, however, got a lot of flak for his remarks and has now come out to clarify his previous statement.
While doing so, he also laid bare some of the challenges he faced while playing for Nigeria.
What Mikel Obi said
Mikel Obi disclosed how the Nigeria Football Federation and the Nigeria Olympics Committee’s poor planning nearly prevented the under-23 team’s participation in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“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,” Mikel said on his podcast.
He continued, “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.”
Mikel Obi also shared that throughout his playing career, there were times when the NFF booked the players in subpar hotels, forcing 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.
Despite Mikel’s revelation, it appears the NFF has moved past that stage because their logistics have been very reliable recently.
