The 2016 FIBA U-17 World Championship will dunk off today in Spain without Nigeria’s team following the refusal of the Spanish Embassy in Lagos to give the team travelling visas. Shockingly too, the Embassy officials offered no explanation for their action.
The Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF had presented every document ranging from travelling insurance, birth certificates, sworn affidavits by the players parents which the Foreign Affairs ministry endorsed since they are minors as demanded by the embassy but yet the Spaniards denied them visas.
Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, Alfonso Barnuevo
Surprisingly the NBBF all through was working with the sport’s world body FIBA and the Local Organising Committee on ground in Spain but in spite of all these, the Spanish Embassy which had promised to issue the visa, started shifting grounds from Thursday to Friday last week before they finally returned the players passports to the Protocol officer of the Youth and Sports ministry without visas on them.
Meanwhile the players and their coaches who were aware of the whole rigmarole by the Spanish Embassy were addressed by the NBBF president, Tijjani Umar yesterday evening and would be released to return to their various homes today. “We are however, going to invite most of them for the Africa U-18 Championship holding later this year,” Umar assured.
The U-17 girls tutored by Coach Adeka Daudu qualified from the African Championship held in Madagascar last year and were drawn in Group A with Canada, Latvia and Japan for the World Championship.
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