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Fam has made a formal protest to the continent’s soccer governing body Caf on the alleged poor reception accorded to the Flames by the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) before their African Nations Cup qualifier against the Super Eagles which the latter won 4-1 on Saturday.
The association also stated that it will protest against the delayed kickoff of the match due to the host team’s passport problems.
Fam president John Zingale, who followed the team to Abuja, was quoted by www.kickoffnigeria.com that the association has made a formal complaint to Caf on the problems which the Flames faced.
Of major concern, Zingale noted, was that the Flames were forced to pay for their visas when in actual fact Fam paid for the West Africans’ visas in Blantyre in March when they came for the first leg.
Leader of delegation Hastings Kapenuka, who is also Fam executive member, said the Flames went through an ordeal right from the airport in Lagos.
“There was no Nigerian official to welcome us at the airport on arrival on Monday and we were there for over six hours from 6AM to 12.30PM,” said Kapenuka.
However, he also said Fam secretariat was to blame for the mess because they told their counterparts in Nigeria that the team would arrive on Tuesday instead of Monday.
“Fam actually wrote to NFA informing them that we would be in Lagos on Tuesday hence the confusion and as a result we were told to pay for our accommodation, food and local transport for three days since we arrived a bit earlier,” explained Kapenuka.
Kapenuka further explained that the situation forced the team to use allowances meant for officials allowances to pay for other costs.
He also said Europe-based players Essau Kanyenda and Dan Chitsulo who arrived separately on Monday and Thursday respectively were also detained for three hours because of visa problems.
“They were treated like deportees and had to surrender their passports before being released,” said Kapenuka.
The Fam official said that was not the end of the ordeal. The team had to wait in the dressing room for over 30 minutes as NFA officials panicked to organise their players’ passports.
“The situation led to their captain Jay Jay Okocha being ruled out of the match. The match official was there and noted our protest,” said Kapenuka.
He said the match kicked off 30 minutes late.
The team is expected home Wednesday morning.
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