The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has postponed by 24 hours the Group L Day One clash between Cape Verde and Uganda, originally scheduled for Saturday, 10 June 2017 in Praia .
The decision was taken by the Organising Committee for the Total Africa Cup of Nations due to the difficulties faced by the Ugandan team in arriving in Praia.
The flight of the Ugandan team did not take-off as expected from Dakar (Senegal), where they held a training camp due to a technical problem, which constitutes a case of force majeure.
Here below, FUFA president Moses Magogo explains the circumstances.
Dear fellow Countrymen,
The full contingent of 31 persons has finally made it to Cape Verde Capital Praia. Arrived at Stadium at 4.15pm and finally hotel at 4.40pm (Kick off time was 4.30pm)
Going to Cape Verde continues to be a challenge to teams from Africa mainland. It is not once or twice that teams arrive hours before kick off. Normally teams charter flights to be able to get here but as we all know chartering is not our league as FUFA.
The only flights which connect Africa Mainland and Cape Verde is the Airline of Cape Verde that comes 3 times to Dakar a week. We planned and booked early for 31pax on this flight to arrive on 8th June 2017, 2 days before match.
We were only told on 7th June that only 8 persons could travel with a list chosen by the Airline that we could not change. And the rest to arrive 6am on 10th June (match day). We did not have options we obliged. It is just a 45 minutes flight anyway. When the first batch travelled the flight was half empty. We later almost failed to get a place for one player Karisa who was a late inclusion by the coach from the friendlies performance despite needing to just replace a name of a dropped player. We paid 3times the cost and still we travelled the flight was half empty.
There was an official communication in writing from the Airline that there is a technical fault with the aircraft. Meanwhile word at Dakar airport was that you guys have to only arrive at match time. It looked like a usual plan by the hosts.
We ceased this opportunity to ask CAF to postpone the game as the players had not had a real meal and had not rested since 2am and only arrived at kick-off.
It is therefore nothing like poor planning but the connection between the Airline and Federation seemed planned. We managed to state our case and the game was postponed to allow last training and proper rest for the players yet not losing our return itenary
Let us just pray that these issues do not psychologically erode the players and we get the best of performance from the boys. Every one is now set to go
We don’t have to find excuses and blames but pray for the best
It is Our Game, It is Our Country
#ProjectCameroon2019
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