Nigeria’s sports minister, Ibrahim Bio, and Super Eagles coach, Lars Lagerback, will meet with representatives of football’s world body, FIFA, in an attempt to dump the Ballito Hampshire Hotel contracted to serve as the national team’s base camp during the upcoming World Cup in South Africa.

Bio led a Nigerian delegation that included officials of both the National Sports Commission (NSC) and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to Durban, in South Africa, on Wednesday in the aftermath of a media storm over the suitability of the hotel. Officials of the KwaZulu-Natal Province, hosts of the team, along with some FIFA officials, were also on the facility tour.

“I am concerned about the noise. I am very unsure of the security of this place. It’s important that our boys are secure,” said Bio, who also led the delegation on Wednesday to the Zimbali Lodge, a five-star facility, which the report claimed was now the preferred choice.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) also reported the visit of the delegation to both hotels but disclosed that a final choice won’t be known until after Bio’s visit to FIFA’s accommodation and logistics arm, Match, later today.

The South African site however reports that FIFA, last week, stated that no base camp hotel changes would be possible. The report further stated that FIFA had not received any official statement from the NFF; but the chairman of the World Cup’s Local Organising Committee, Danny Jordaan, told NAN last week in Kimberley that Nigeria was free to change its base if they were not satisfied with the Ballito Hampshire Hotel, adding that FIFA had 46 base camps from which Nigeria could choose from.

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