Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has been reported to have bailed out the Nigeria football Olympic team.
Mikel Obi reportedly paid $4,000 to ensure the Nigeria Olympic team caught their flight to Salvador after the hotel in Sao Paulo held the entire team to ransom over the bills incurred by additional officials.
Organisers have insisted on a team of 25 players, made up of 18 players and seven officials, and even sports minister Solomon Dalung has ordered this rule be strictly adhered to.
It was gathered that it took the intervention of the Chelsea star, who is also the team captain, who paid over $4, 0000 before the players and officials of the team were allowed to leave the hotel, according to africanfootball.com.
According to the source, this time around it was the responsibility of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to settle the hotel bills of the extra five officials.
“We just arrived Salvador now (5.20pm Nigerian time) from Sao Paolo. We nearly missed our flight because of unpaid bills in the hotel. The hotel held us to ransom,” a team official was quoted by africanfootball.com.
“The problem is that all the additional officials here in Brazil are the responsibility of the Nigeria Football Federation, who said they will pay for them, but they did not pay for them again,” the official added.
Earlier he was reported to have donated $30,000 to the Olympics team ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics following revelations that all the athletes were asked by the Athletics federations to pay for their airfares. He however, denied the report.
