Super Falcons: Airport's National Embarrassment Further Exposes NFF's Incompetence 

  Super Falcons: Airport's National Embarrassment Further Exposes NFF's Incompetence     By Niyi Busari     Just hours after making country proud by beating Cote d'Ivoire 3-0 on aggregate in the last round of 2022 African Women's Nations Cup qualifiers, the Super Falcons of Nigeria were subjected to international ridicule at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, BSNSports.com.ng can report.   The nine-time African champions revenged their heartbreaking ouster from Tokyo Olympics by the Ivorians after a 1-0 defeat at their backyard on Wednesday evening to further confirm their superiority.   In the unfortunate incidence, BSN understands that the doctor (name withheld) attached to the team did all that was expected before arrival and that was why the team was cleared to leave Abidjan.   She tried to make payments for COVID-19 tests in Abidjan and was advised to do that in Abuja as the flight had already been delayed by additional two hours.   Upon their return to Abuja after their glorious outing in Abidjan at 2:30 am, the Falcons were delayed by the officials of Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) over Covid-19 protocol issue.   The health officials at the Airport had insisted that the team produced their valid Covid 19 tests or should undergo a fresh test to ascertain their statuses before they could be allowed into the country.   Officials in the Nigerian delegation, however, insisted that the team had conducted the tests before leaving Nigeria on Sunday but couldn't carry out another before leaving Cote d'Ivoire.   And BSN scooped that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) who supposed to have been represented by their protocol officer to sort out the problem before the Falcons arrival were nowhere to be found when the team arrived at 2:30 am, Thursday morning.   This subjected the team to hours of delay at the Airport as some of the players in the videos that went viral confirmed the allegation that there was no one on ground to explain to them what was going on and to plead on their behalf to the NCDC officials.   Ordinarily, the NFF should have provided an amount of money through its protocol officer to carry out the test in Abidjan, but test were not carried out in Abidjan, hence the delay at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport.   Even though the NFF protocol official didn't traveled with the team still could not be found at point of arrival same day.     Worse still, the Falcons head coach, Randy Waldrum in a video lambasted the government agency in charge of COVID-19 (NCDC) for dutifully carrying out their tasks, instead of blaming his employers (the NFF) who failed in discharging its duties.   The federation who had in recent time successfully played two international competitions with the Falcons versus Ghana and Falconets versus Cameroon should know the NCDC directives in that regards.   The American coach used the opportunity to transfer aggression on Nigerian government as his initial one-year contract which expired in October 2021 is reportedly yet to be renewed, according to sources in the Federation.   In a press statement by the NFF, the Secretary General of the Federation, Sanusi Mohammed said the Federation did all they could to prevent the ugly situation but it was beyond their control.   “The issue had to do with covid19 protocols and we had no control over how things would be approached by the officials in charge at the airport each time. In this particular case, we fulfilled our part of the requirements. However, some other group of individuals arrived at the same time as the Super Falcons’ contingent and were bent on circumventing the process, and this compelled the health officials to adopt stern measures and even lock up some of their offices.   "It was beyond us, but we have already apologized to our players and officials over this incident.”   However, the press statement failed to address the issue on how the money meant for COVID-19 test was spent and couldn't be delivered in time to avert the national embarrassment.   The situation also speaks volumes about Amaju Pinnick led board lack of interest in the welfare of the women's team, which had brought most international laurels to the country in history.