Super Seven emerged the overall winners in the recent national five aside tournament and represented Nigeria at the continental tournament in Accra, Ghana, where they emerged the regional champions, which guaranteed them a ticket to play in England. However, the team will not be participating in the tournament sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank as the British high commission has refused to process the members' travel documents.
Taking place in Liverpool, the Standard Chartered Trophy is an international five-a-side football tournament organised by the bank in partnership with Liverpool FC. It is marketed as offering football fans a once in a life time Money Can’t Buy opportunity of playing on an English Premier League football pitch.
After the team submitted its necessary documents to the British high commission on March 27, it was refused visas on April 14 by officials, who alleged that the players may not return to the country. Team sponsor Tayo Ogundele, said he was shocked that while the British high commissions of other countries where winners emerged were given visas, the Nigerian team was denied.
Mr Ogundele said: “It is rather unfortunate that the British high commission in Nigeria does not have respect for Nigerian citizens at all. What happened to my team can happen to an individual, organisation or a football team like ours.
"After my team secured a ticket to Road to Anfield sponsored by one of British popular banks Standard Chartered Bank, we quickly applied for visas and by the time we returned to the high commission, we were denied visas. One of the officials said my players are very young and there is no assurance that they will come back to the country after the competition even despite the assurance giving the high commission by the bank in Nigeria.”
Team captain Samuel Idowu, expressed his frustration over the attitude of the high commission. He lamented that the team went through difficult time qualifying for the Anfield tournament and urged its sponsors, Standard Chartered Bank to wade into the matter.
“We players were in tears when we were denied visas. Everybody knows that we are Nigerian champions and West African Champions, which automatically qualified us to participate in the Road To Anfield competition in Liverpool.
“We are using this medium to call on Nigeria Football Federation and the relevant authorities to look into this matter because what the British high commission did to us shows that they don’t have respect for Nigerian citizens. This was despite the fact that we presented all the necessary documents for the trip,” he added.
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