Rising from arrival meetings between the administrative officials of Super Eagles and FIFA and Local Organising Committee (LOC) officials, the Media Officer of the Super Eagles Toyin Ibitoye disclosed that the Super Eagles will not be at the opening ceremony in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, scheduled to also host the competition final.
The Nigerian contingent which landed in Essentuki on Monday night from their training camp in Austria, is scheduled to leave for Kaliningrad venue of their opening game, which is 3 hours away by flight on Thursday afternoon, about the time the opening ceremony will be commencing.
The training ground in Essentuki is around 1,581 kilometres away from the venue of the opening ceremony in Moscow. They will need to travel almost two hours 30 minutes by air or almost a day if by train. If they would be at the opening ceremony, the Super Eagles will be 1,254 kilometres from Kaliningrad stadium where they would have their first game.