- The Nigerian badminton team are yet to leave the country for the 2020 Olympics qualifier, which starts on Monday (today) in Egypt, as they have not been issued visas by the Egyptian Embassy in Nigeria.
The Nigerian badminton team are yet to leave the country for the 2020 Olympics qualifier, which starts on Monday (today) in Egypt, as they have not been issued visas by the Egyptian Embassy in Nigeria.
President of the Badminton Federation of Nigeria, Francis Orbih, while speaking with our correspondent on Sunday, said their inability to secure visa from the Egyptian Embassy had already scuttled their chances of participating in the team event of the qualifiers.
The tournament serves as qualifiers for the men and women’s team event of the Thomas and Uber Cup, which is billed to hold in Denmark between May 16 and 24.
He however said if visas are gotten on Monday, the team would depart the country on Tuesday (tomorrow), to take part in the qualifiers for the single event of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
“From every indication now, we can’t take part in the team event which starts tomorrow (Monday). But the individual championship starts on Friday and that is the Olympic qualifier, the team event is the qualifier for the Thomas and Uber Cup to get representatives for Africa for the men’s team and women’s team events, they are supposed to be in Denmark in May,”
“We submitted our applications since January 28, they have been tossing us and till now, they have not given us their reasons for not giving us visa.”
Orbih said the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare and the President of the Egyptian Badminton Federation have steeped in with a view of helping the team secure visa.
“The President in Egypt has said he would push so that they would issue us visa tomorrow (Monday), we have spent close to N2m changing our tickets from Friday to Tuesday (tomorrow), hoping that if they give us visa on Monday, we would depart on Tuesday, get there early enough and take part in the Olympics qualifier, which is the individual event.
“The (sports) minister has stepped in, I am doing a letter for note verbale for him this night (Sunday), he is going to submit it at the foreign affairs ministry tomorrow (Monday) and then at the Egyptian Embassy.”
