The Nigerian Olympic Committee (NOC), has spoken about the controversy surrounding the Nigerian U-23 football team in the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Secretary General of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, Tunde Popoola denied any direct involvement with the delay of the 34 or 25 or eventually 29 people ‘allegedly’ expected to be on the plane from Atlanta to Manaus.
In an exclusive interview with footballlive.ng, Popoola explained that the NOC was contacted on August 1 , by the Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung to transfer about 62 million for a chartered flight.
“I got a call from the Minister of Sport to help transfer funds to the stranded Dream Team. But, the interesting thing is that the money did not even get to us until August 2nd after the close of work. B
“But we work with a partner bank so it was that goodwill that made it possible to transfer that money.
“However we were later called again and were informed that the team had gotten a flight; meanwhile the money was in transit.
“The money is back in our account, and that’s how that matter played out,” the NOC chief explained.