They were, however, chased by the volunteers attached to the stadium for violating the rules.
The South American team were also training at the pitch directly next to that of Nigeria prior to their arrival. The pitches are heavily demarcated with barbed wires and spread with trees to the very top.
According to the Team Liaison Officer attached to the Nigeria side Yajima Anya, the Brazilian side were to train elsewhere but objected to it on hearing that their opponents were coming.
“Going by the FIFA training schedule, the four participating teams in Group B are expected to train in all the pitches assigned to them located in different Stadiums,” she explained.
“In effect if you train in one you go to another which are not in the same stadium. Brazil trained here (Saitama) on Thursday and should have gone elsewhere on Friday, but they refused when they heard that Nigeria was coming,” said Anya, who is Japanese.
“But the volunteers attached to the Stadium asked them politely to stop and move to another pitch within the complex. It took a lot of persuasion before they accepted,” she added.
While Nigeria is billed to face Korea this Sunday, Brazil will take on Italy on the same day. Nigeria and Brazil meet on August 22, which will be third meeting for both sides.
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