Athens 2004 Fallout: Team Nigeria in Kit Scandal
As athletes complain of inferior material
From Pius Ayinor in Athens
The state of affairs with Team Nigeria just before and during the Olympics have continued to flow from the Games Village in Athens, even as most members of the Nigerian contingent depart for their various locations. Very few good stories have come from the camp, and one of the worrisome ones is the kiting of the national athletes to this world event.
Some athletes and officials here have told of how they got kited with what is known here as "S.O.O Adidas jerseys." THISDAYSports learned from officials here that the Adidas kit given to them were allegedly purchased at a sports shop at the National Stadium, Lagos even though the world was told of a contract signed just before the Olympics between Team Nigeria officials and the German equipment company.
Some officials and athletes, who spoke with our reporter, claimed that they could identify some of the jerseys as it had already been rejected by a basketball club in Lagos last May.
"One of the Adidas clothing brought to the basketball team, for instance, was seen all over the place in Lagos last May. When the First bank team was going to Brazil for a FIBA tournament, they needed a new set of jerseys urgently. And because the one ordered was delayed in transit, they opted to buy those in Lagos than take risk landing in Sau Paulo and not getting the proper colours. I happened to be at the stadium and I was one of those who examined the jersey at that shop in the National Stadium.
"They rejected it because it was of inferior quality and preferred to make alternative arrangement or use their old jerseys. The same items, exactly the same things surfaced in Athens. Where in the world do we have any kind of Adidas like these?" the official queried.
An examination carried out by THISDAYSports on some of the items supplied the teams here proved the items were of the lowest quality. The Adidas bags in particular, looked like the fading green colours were forced on the bags."That is the reason only few people are carrying it around. Would you place your bag beside the Adidas bag of a South African athlete? It's so shameful."
We also learnt that when some of the teams made individual attempts to replace their jerseys with the standard items on display in Greece, it was not possible as the Adidas outlet in the Greek capital could not find a match.
"They explained that all countries who had contract with them could get their orders honoured free of charge in Athens. All jerseys here were the exact design of the countries, which have contracts with Adidas. We saw South Africa, Greece and the others. But they could not trace our own from the long list and items in the warehouse because Nigeria's name was not there. So may be Adidas deal was only a localised contract with somebody in Nigeria otherwise we would have ours there too," said the official.
Even though the Director of Sports Development, Chief Patrick Ekeji, said that the officials were well behaved and not complaining about accommodation, it was not exactly true.
"They put us (officials) in pairs in rooms to my surprise. We didn't talk, so to say we were happy is not exactly true. We don't know whether our late arrival caused it or we asked for less accommodation because we visited our colleagues from other countries, even from Africa and they had different but better situations."
We learnt that all the news about kit and welfare gave players poor psychological approach to the Games as they never did anything that matched others in quality.
THISDAYSports checks proved that the contract for the Olympics might have been hurriedly done without any holding tie to Adidas headquarters. We also learnt that aside the Falcons whose items arrived on time for the training tour, other athletes like basketballers borrowed their jerseys for their friendly games in Germany and at the end never got the training kit promised.
It could be recalled that THISDAYSports reported in July that the basketball team had suspended friendlies in order to receive their training kits first and dress properly for matches.
Aside the pair of Etonic canvass shoes given, those items are still being awaited with the torch gone off for Athens 2004.
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