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Sports |
Flames held up in Addis Ababa |
by
Garry Chirwa, 31 March 2005
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14:53:03
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The national soccer team’s woes continued on Wednesday when they were held up in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa where they were forced to spend a night following Ethiopian Airline’s sudden cancellation of its flight to Lilongwe.
The humiliated Flames, who are on transit from the disastrous Tunis foray where they suffered a 7-0 massacre at the hands of Tunisia’s Carthage Eagles, were initially expected to wing back home on Wednesday.
Fam general secretary Roosevelt Mpinganjira confirmed the development and said there is a possibility of paying the players and officials extra allowances for the day they spent in Ethiopia.
“We got a call from the leader of delegation Mr [Moses] Mkandawire on Tuesday afternoon informing us that the Ethiopian Airlines had cancelled their Wednesday flight for unexplained reasons and therefore they will spend a night there.
Mpinganjira also said the sudden change of Ethiopian Airline flight schedule will turn out to be costly for the association.
“The possibility that we might pay the players and officials extra allowances is there. And in addition to that, we’ll have to accommodate some foreign-based players here for an extra day because they will miss their flights since they were supposed to connect today,” said Mpinganjira.
Senior national team players are paid US $50 (about K5,500) daily external allowance each while technical officials get US $60 (about K6,500) daily external allowance each.
Leader of delegation gets US $100 (about K11,000) daily allowance plus a US $50 (K5,500) daily phone allowance and the association is, therefore, expected to cough over K125,000 for the extra day spent in Ethiopia.
South Africa-based gangling forward Russell Mwafulirwa also risks being fined by his club Jomo Cosmos for reporting back late. Veteran midfielder John Maduka who also plays in South Africa has since returned to his base in Bloemfontein while Europe-based players Essau Kanyenda and Clement Kafwafwa flew back a day after the Tunisia game.
The team arrives in the country on Thursday evening. |
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