Flames miss flight again, FAM blames organisers

Thursday, 29 July 2010 15:40

Written by JOE CHIBEWA

MZUZU--Is it a bad omen or just a coincidence? But the truth is that it never rains but pours for the nine beleaguered Under-23 Malawi national team players who failed to connect to Egypt after missing their connecting flight in Nairobi.

Just 24 hours earlier, the Junior Flames missed their scheduled flight to Egypt for the ongoing mini-international soccer tournament after they jumped onto a slow coach from Blantyre to Lilongwe on Monday morning and only reached Kamuzu International Airport around noon when the plane they were supposed to board was already taxiing off.

They flew out on Tuesday on a Kenya Airways flight but touched down at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport 10 minutes after the plane that would have connected them to Egypt had taken off.

The luckless nine were forced to spend another night in Nairobi, a development one player described as a “bad omen”.

But team leader Alick Tahuna, who is FAM’s second vice president, is still optimistic that the Junior Flames have a chance to finish in the top two in their group of their group if they do well in their next two matches.

Tahuna is drawing the inspiration from the Junior Flames’ performance in their first match against Morocco which they lost with a single after conceding a penalty regardless of fielding only 10 men and playing without a substitute on the bench.

The Junior Flames were up against Cameroon Thursday evening in their second encounter.

Meanwhile, FAM chief executive officer Charles Nyirenda has pushed the buck on the whole saga on the tournament’s organizers Egypt, saying they were disorganised from the word go.

“First it was the issue of flight booking and then there was the issue of allowing three senior players as per Olympic tournament rules, only to change their tune later,” Nyirenda was quoted by The Nation as saying in trying to justify the status quo.--maravipost.

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Comments

0 # Tintin and Haddock 2010-07-30 15:04

Our football managers care about themselves and not the sport. That is the problem that has been there for all these years. But who can really remove the inept administrators?--T&H

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0 # Ryan 2010-08-01 00:29

Vote them out when the elections come around. Problem with many of us we complain about things but we don't participate. Get involved and vote the bums out!!!!!

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