9/5/2025
The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) said it withdrew with regrets from the 2025 World Relays in Guangzhou, China, due to the delay in issuances of visas to Nigerian athletes.
According to the AFN, visas were issued on May 8, 2025, for the competition beginning on May 10 and this did not make sense for a meaningful participation in the competition.
“This last-minute issuance, occurring on the very day our team was scheduled to arrive in Guangzhou, renders participation logistically impossible and demonstrates a fundamental failure of Chinese administrative processes,” said an AFN statement made available to the media .
What really happened?
The AFN highlighted the following specific failures by Chinese authorities
that directly resulted in Team Nigeria’s inability to participate.
1. “Excessive and Discriminatory Requirements: Chinese authorities imposed visa requirements that far exceeded international sporting norms, including demands for documentation that was particularly burdensome for Nigerian
nationals.
2. Deliberate Processing Delays: Despite our athletes submitting passport applications at Chinese Embassies in Washington DC, Berlin, and Abuja on April 25, 2025—a full two weeks before the competition—Chinese authorities
delayed processing without reasonable explanation.
3. Verification Letter Confusion: The Chinese visa system’s requirement for a special “Verification Letter of Invitation” was poorly communicated and inconsistently applied, with LOC officials themselves unclear about their own procedures.
4. Inexplicable Final Delay: Even after all documentation was finally accepted
as complete, Chinese authorities held the applications for additional days
without justification, only to issue the visas on May 8—the very day the
team needed to be in China.”
