The last is yet to be heard about the refusal of the Australian Embassy to issue visas to the various supporters clubs in the country in the ongoing FIFA women world cup being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand with the National Chairman of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club, Rev. Samuel Ikpea, calling on the NFF to do the needful and appeal to FIFA on their behalf to see reason why their ticket money should be refunded.

He told newstap.com.ng that the ill treatment meted out to his members by the Australian Embassy is not justified because they fulfilled all the visa requirements but were surprised that the Embassy did not deem it fit to issue visas that would have enabled members of the club travel to Australia to cheer the Super Falcons to victory.

”You should realise that it’s not the first time we’re attending FIFA or CAF organised competitions. I want to believe that for any country to host any tournament, they’ll have an agreement with CAF or FIFA which involves relaxing their visa requirements to enable people come into their country because when you’re hosting, you expect people, fans and supporters to come into your country. 

“We bought our tickets from NFF as allocated to them by FIFA, paid the money and got an agent whom we paid for uploading our members documents.

“Every member submitted the required documents such as their bank statement, leave letter, health insurance, match ticket, paid the visa fee online and also paid for the biometrics but unfortunately the Embassy still held unto our visas.

“Our girls played the first, second and third matches and eventually lost out in the round of 16 and still no visa was given to us and I think this is not justifiable,” he said.

According to him, members of the club lost millions of their hard earned money for visa processing and tickets and as such the issue should not be swept under the carpet just as he expressed hope that the current board of the football house will not keep quiet over the issue but will make FIFA see reason why their ticket monies should be refunded since they did not use the tickets. 

“There is no denying the fact that our members lost millions of their hard earned money just because as patriotic citizens they want to go and support their team in Australia and this must not be swept under the carpet and we expect the NFF to take this matter up at the highest level with FIFA.

” We have had world cups in the past but no country treated us this way. When South Africa, Russia and Quarter hosted, they didn’t ask for visa requirements; what they used was fan identify card which means that once the tournament ends, you don’t have any business being in that country and it worked perfectly well.”Our members have traveled to virtually all parts of the world and there have been no negative report against us and that makes us to wonder while Australian Embassy treated us this way.