Nigerian soccer team stuck in Atlanta... 24 hours before its Olympic opener

Nigeria’s men’s Olympic soccer team won’t be flying to Brazil until the morning of its tournament opener after having multiple connecting flights cancelled.

The Nigerians will now depart from Atlanta at 7 a.m. Thursday morning after cancelling a Wednesday night flight because their plane was too small. They are scheduled to play Japan at 9 p.m. EST in the Amazonian city of Manaus Thursday.

The BBC initially reported Wednesday morning that the squad was stuck in Atlanta because the Nigerian Sports Ministry’s payment to the airline scheduled to carry the team to Brazil had not gone through.

Colin Udoh provided some more details on Twitter:

With the payment sorted out, the Nigerian team was scheduled to fly out Wednesday night. But it’s apparently not the first time the players have been promised that their flight was scheduled, only to have it fall through.

“We’ve been told to get ready to fly out in few hours but that’s been the story since last week,” an unnamed player told the BBC.

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When the players arrived at the aircraft and saw the aircraft that was supposed to finally take them to Brazil, there was a totally separate issue:

Flights from Atlanta to Manaus take an estimated eight hours, meaning a 7 a.m. flight will get the players on the ground in Brazil at 3 p.m., six hours before their game against Japan is scheduled to kick off. Ebikagbro, the team’s media officer, says the flight will arrive at 2 p.m.:

So Nigeria should get to Manaus in time for the game — that is, if this latest flight doesn’t get cancelled too.