Dalung lied about how the Dream Team got to Brazil – NFF

– Solomon Dalung says the NFF has a partnership with Delta airlines 

– The NFF fires back at the sport minister saying there is no partnership

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and minister of sport Solomon Dalung have traded words over the manner in which the Dream Team left Atlanta for Brazil.

Solomon Dalung

The Dream Team was stranded in Atlanta before the Rio Olympics before Delta airlines came to the rescue of the Olympic team.

Speaking in an interview with Channels TV, said: “The theory of the chartered flight was another attempt to rip the country off‎. All these are unsubstantiated allegations.

“As I stand today, we have a receipt from an agent that NFF claimed to have chartered a flight from Atlanta to Manaus on the 4th of August.

“Yet, we had Delta airline which I have confirmed through the person I sent to Delta office that the flight from Atlanta to Manaus was their contribution to help the team get to Brazil.

“That they also airlifted them from Nigeria to Atlanta. It means that there was this existing partnership between Nigeria Football Federation and Delta Airlines.”

GET for FREE: Get the latest sports news on Naij Sport

The NFF responded in a statement saying: “The NFF board and management are taken aback by these insinuations.

“The NFF president has been telling us of meeting between him and the minister on how to avoid the kind of situation we got into in the USA in the future.

“So, the minister’s latest statements are a bombshell. We are not openly challenging the minister, but we must set the records straight.

“To start, we do not have any partnership with Delta Airlines, a company that we owe much gratitude for the way it came to the rescue to airlift our team to Brazil.

“The names of NFF’s partners and sponsors are known to the public.”

Dream Team VI arrive Brazil from Atlanta

“The NFF is not aware of any receipt that was presented to the minister for airlifting the U23 team from Atlanta to Manaus. 

“I am aware that the minister himself requested for the phone number of our FIFA Match Agent (Mr. Jairo Pachon, who has been working with the NFF since 2009) when everybody became desperate about how the team would go to Brazil.

“The NFF president gave him the phone number, and the minister himself asked Mr. Pachon to go ahead and charter an aircraft, and Pachon reverted that the amount would be $174,000, as against the $300,000 that was bandied earlier.

“However, the money did not reflect in the airline company’s bank account within the deadline it gave to us, so the service was cancelled.

“We insist that Mr. Pachon acted in the best interest of Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, the Dream Team face Honduras in a third place match at the Olympics. The team lost 2 – 0 to Germany in the semi-final.

The match will be played on Saturday, August 20, at the Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The game kicks off at 5pm Nigerian time.

The post Dalung lied about how the Dream Team got to Brazil – NFF appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read Naij.com 24/7.