Nigeria’s female national team, Super Falcons are continuing their camping schedule in Vienna, Austria, where they will be until this Saturday, despite a rude intrusion by an angry compatriot they met on a train in the European nation, megasportsarena.com reports.
This much was revealed by the match agent of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Jairo Pachon, who disclosed that the soccer governing body has already initiated moves to ensure that officials get the true identity of the intruder, who got on the train with the Falcons in Vienna.
Pachon admitted that the incident on Tuesday made the Nigerian players uncomfortable, as the man pilloried them with inflammatory political talks, thereby marring an innocent trip by the players, who had been in camp since Thursday and opted to have a view of the city.
They made the trip after their morning training and decided to ply a public train into the city centre, only to be accosted by the vexed man, who a press release by the NFF’s communications department noted that his claim to be a Nigerian was doubtful from his accent.
A video soon emerged and went viral on social media of how the man hauled abuses against the girls for representing what he called ‘a terrorist country’ and kept saying that no one could touch him because that would amount to assault as he had not touched anyone.
However, Pachon has now come out to affirm that the tirade did not unsettle the players in any way, as the man was ignored throughout, which infuriated him the more, and the Falcons opted to continue their camping as if nothing had happened.
He added that the matter was immediately reported to the Austrian Police and the Embassy of Nigeria, which promised that the fellow, who was bundled out of the train at the next station, would be fished out, while the Falcons continue preparing for the Aisha Buhari International Invitational Competition in Lagos.
Pachon told thenff.com: “It is unfortunate. The girls were on the way to the city centre which was just a few minutes from the hotel. They entered this train and the guy got inside and started insulting them.
“He was bundled out at the next station and we have reported the matter to the Embassy of Nigeria and the Austrian Police. We have never had this kind of case with any of our teams and lessons have been learnt and we will be guided appropriately going forward.
“This incident will not in any way affect the team’s camping programme and they will remain in Austria until Saturday, 24th July as scheduled.”
