Kenya refuses to travel on bus from Lilongwe to Blantyre
Drama ensued on Sunday afternoon at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) in the capital city of Malawi, Lilongwe when Kenya national football team refused to board a bus which was hired by Football Association of Malawi (FAM) to take them to Blantyre for Wednesday’s World Cup qualifiers match at Kamuzu Stadium.
The team, which arrived at KIA through Kenyan Airways justified their stand, stressing that they could not travel a distance of 200km per FIFA rules and also said the bus which was hired for them was sub-standard.
However, FAM Chief Executive Officer Sugzo Nyirenda blamed the Harambe Stars for the incidence by stating that they already communicated to FIFA and Kenyan Football Association that there is no any domestic airline in Malawi as such the only option for Kenya was to use Ethiopian Airways which land at Chileka Airport in Blantyre.
“We advised them to use Ethiopian Airways because it arrives in Blantyre and they even confirmed to board Ethiopian airways. To our dismay at the eleventh hour that is when they changed the tune preferring to use Kenyan Airways which landed in Lilongwe,” said Nyirenda.
Nyirenda also said it was surprising that the players, leader of delegation accepted to travel except the coach, who was adamant.
After persuassions, the team left with police escort on bus and arrived in Blantyre at 11pm.
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