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By Peter Akinbo
The National President of the Authentic Nigeria Football and Allied Sports Supporters Club, Abayomi Ogunjimi, has called for a refund of $9,000 (N7m) from world football body FIFA, after the supporters’ club had purchased tickets for the Super Falcons’ group games in Australia, but were denied travel visas by the Australian embassy.
Despite the visa setback, Ogunjimi praised the resilience of the Falcons, who secured a hard-fought victory over co-hosts Australia in their second group game. Despite being outnumbered in the stands, the nine-time African Champions emerged triumphant with a 3-2 victory at Brisbane on Thursday.
Following the game’s conclusion, Ogunjimi held a press conference at the ANFASSC Secretariat in Surulere, Lagos. He expressed deep disappointment at the manner in which the supporters club was barred from attending the first two games, particularly the match against Australia.
He alleged that the Australian Embassy deliberately kept them away, despite the supporters’ club fulfilling all the necessary requirements by submitting the requested documents through the online portal provided by the host nation.
“Their game plan is so obvious, the Australian Embassy are keeping us away intentionally, we would have been on ground to cheer our darling team to victory today (Thursday), but with or without us, our ladies stood tall and silenced their crowd. Football is not a do-or-die affair. We compete, we catch fun, we strive to thrive, but it’s sad that our entry documents have not been granted,” Ogunjimi said.
“We have been travelling and strongly supporting our athletes in various continents. It is just shocking that the Australian Embassy took us unaware. If you have hosting rights, you should accommodate everyone,” he added.
While appreciating the Nigeria Football Federation’s efforts, Ogunjimi urged the country’s football body to do more to prevent such situations in the future.
He called on the NFF to liaise with FIFA to secure a refund of the $9,000 spent on match tickets for the group stage, as the supporters’ club had not been granted visas.
“We spent over $9,000 on the tickets from FIFA and I think we deserve a refund, because we bought tickets for over 100 people. Each member spent roughly N600,000 on match tickets, biometrics and for processing the trip.
“However, if Australia can still have a change of mind and consider that we are patriotic supporters club members that have travelled far and wide and revisit our documents and issue our members travel visa, so that we can cheer our team to the level of the final, we will appreciate it. I think if they can achieve this type of result against the host nation without us, they can definitely get to the final if we are there,” Ogunjimi said.
Nonetheless, Ogunjimi remains hopeful that the visa issue would be resolved before the Falcons’ last group game against the Republic of Ireland on Monday morning.