NFF Blames South Africa For Bafana Bafana’s Late Arrival To Uyo Ahead Of Super Eagles Clash

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has argued that it has no hand in South Africa’s delayed arrival to Uyo for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

The Bafana Bafana of South Africa took to their X page on Thursday to reveal that they spent “18 hours on the road” and ended up sleeping in Port Harcourt on Wednesday night instead of flying to Uyo, the host city for the game.

South Africa arrived in Uyo on Thursday afternoon and had their first training session in the evening of the said day for the qualification game which will kick off at 8 p.m. today, June 7.

The handlers of the Bafana Bafana social media accounts made it look like it was the fault of the NFF that they spent the night in Port Harcourt and arrived in Uyo on Thursday instead of Wednesday.

To contest that, the head of NFF’s protocol, Emmanuel Ayanbunmi, issued a statement to reveal that the Bafana Bafana left South Africa five hours later than scheduled, and the NFF got to know that they would land in Port Harcourt for routine checks instead of Lagos.

“The problem has nothing to do with the NFF. At the time they said they were taking off, it took them a further five hours to actually depart from South Africa. We were not informed. We had informed officials of the Nigeria Immigration Service and other relevant agencies in Lagos to expedite action on the formalities for them”, a statement from the NFF reads.

“It was less than two hours to landing that they contacted us to say that the landing right they got was for Port Harcourt International Airport and not the MMA in Lagos. We had to quickly get in touch with officials of NMS and other agencies in Port Harcourt and mobilize people to ensure smooth formalities for them. Having completed all immigration formalities, they wanted to take off for Uyo but were informed that the Obong Victor Attah Airport only operates from sunrise to sunset, so that was not possible. The NFF immediately mobilised resources for them to comfortably spend the night in Port Harcourt.”