Nigerians in Brazil Mobilize for Super Eagles

As they file out to confront Argentina in Wednesday’s crucial World Cup match in Porto Alegre, one thing that the Super Eagles will likely not lack is the support of Nigerians. Aware that the team is on the threshold of qualifying for its third second round of 16 in football’s most prestigious competition, many Nigerians in Sao Paulo, who initially didn’t plan to travel to Porto Alegre, venue of the match, an 18 hour journey by road, have suddenly changed their mind.

As a result, many of them are making frantic efforts to buy tickets from wherever to enable them travel to Porto Alegre. While many succeeded in buying tickets from touts or vendors, others could not owing to scarcity of the tickets. An official of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club, NFSC informed the magazine on Tuesday that many Nigerians who initially didn’t buy match tickets for the match suddenly felt the need to be in Porto Alegre and had contacted the management of the NFSC on the possibility of getting tickets.

The NFSC having exhausted its tickets, made efforts to procure more, including contacting the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF officials in Sao Paolo, to ensure that more Nigerians travelled to Porto Alegre but that didn’t work out as the NFF was also said to have exhausted its stock.

As at Tuesday when the NFSC members departed Sao Paolo for Porto Alegre via chattered Marcopolo buses, efforts were still being made to source for more tickets to ensure that more people achieved their wish to watch the match live in Estadio Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre.