Tag: BCA

The Egyptian Embassy in Lagos-Nigeria, has finally issued Visas to some members of the Nigerian contingents going to Egypt for the African Championship, but the team will go without some.

In an exclusive chat with the President of the Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN) Francis Orbih Esq, he confirmed to Sports Intelligence that 17 out of the 21 people that applied for the visas were given.

All the participating athletes were given visas but the Vice President of the BFN and two umpires who were officially invited by the Badminton Confederation of Africa (BFA) for officiating and certification were refused visas.

The decision means Nigeria’s chance of having two officials at the championship has been declined by the Egyptian embassy.

However, an angered board member of the BFN who got infuriated by the unfair manner in which the Nigerian contingents were treated withdrew his passport and backed out of the journey.

Barr. Orbih further stated that although Nigeria will miss out on the team event which started on Monday, they will have to take part in the individual championship and the Olympic qualifier which will start on Friday.

The Nigerian contingents are expected to depart Nigeria on Wednesday and will be expected to land at Egypt on Thursday.

Nigeria who is currently ranked number one in Africa, will be expected to put the visa-delay-saga behind, and pick all the necessary points needed to secure available spots at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

It will also be recalled that the contingents sent in their visa requests since January 28, 2019 and had to wait even till the competition started on February 10, before they were given visas on the second day of event.