Reports from Johannesburg- have confirmed to Sierra Express Media that the South African Football Association (Safa) will get a chartered flight to Sierra Leone for their 2012 African Nations Cup qualifier against the Leone Stars on October 10. \u00a0\u00a0(Photo: Safa chief Leslie Sedibe)<\/p>\n
This was confirmed by the Safa chief Leslie Sedibe soon after the team announcement \u201cWe had an unpleasant experience with our SA under-17 squad going to Burkina Faso on a commercial flight where luggage was lost recently and want to avoid this, so we have decided to charter a flight for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained \u201cThe main reason we decided to charter a flight was due to the fact that to get to Sierra Leone, which is in West Africa, we need to catch a regular flight to Nairobi, in Kenya, then fly to Ghana and from there catch a flight to Freetown.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would mean the squad would be travelling for up to 36-hours. We had to avoid this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
By chartering a flight, the team could leave Tambo Airport at 9am on October 8 and arrive in Freetown the same day, while it was still light.<\/p>\n
On their arrival at Freetown, which is on a peninsular, the players would travel by bus to a ferry to be taken to their hotel in the heart of the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a mental as well as a physical challenge for the players and technical team, so we want to smooth it out as much as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing in African countries has proved demanding for Bafana in the past 18 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has happened that when a team arrives in a country the hotel is not booked for the players,\u201d said acting Bafana team manager Barney Kujane, who recently headed on a fact-finding mission to Freetown ahead of the qualifier.<\/p>\n
Bafana head their qualifying group, after their 2-0 home win over Niger in the opening Afcon qualifier earlier this month. Sierra Leone shocked African champions Egypt with a 1-1 draw in Cairo.<\/p>\n
Bafana head coach Pitso Mosimane knows what to expect in Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n
He was assistant coach to Bafana head coach Carlos Alberto Parreira in 2008 when Bafana lost 1-0 in a 2010 African Nations Cup qualifier in Freetown in June 2008.<\/p>\n
Mosimane is determined not to use the bad conditions or the travelling as an excuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe as a squad have to learn to fight our way out of difficulties. I am not going to use conditions here as an excuse if we do not win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to stand up and be counted and show our supporters we have guts and can get results in difficult away matches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Reports from Johannesburg- have confirmed to Sierra Express Media that the South African Football Association (Safa) will get a chartered flight to Sierra Leone for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[824,1],"tags":[2308,5281,1476,5365,5366,5269,5367],"class_list":["post-14425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-uncategorized","tag-african-nations-cup","tag-bafana","tag-leone-stars","tag-leslie-sedibe","tag-mosimane","tag-safa","tag-south-african-football-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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