SAN FRANCISCO, November 17, (THEWILL) – Arsenal and Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has called on the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to take responsibility for the failure of logistics that saw his national men’s team, the Panthers of Gabon stranded at the airport in Gambia for six hours.
The forward was on the losing end as Gabon suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands their hosts in a 2022 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Group D qualifier played at the Independence Stadium Bakau, Gambia on Monday.
“We lost as mens. With pride thanks Panthers…” Aubameyang posted online after the match.
The players were forced to spend a good portion of the night sleeping on the bare Banjul Airport floor on Sunday, November 15, hours before they were meant to contest the qualifier against Gambia.
Aubameyang, captain of the national team, took to social media with images and video to reveal the team’s struggles, slamming CAF for allowing his team to sleep on the airport floor for six hours.
“Nice job CAF, it’s as if we were back in the 1990s,” Aubameyang posted on Twitter.
He went on tell CAF to take responsibility with a dire warning that African football cannot grow as fast as desired with occurrences as such.
“This will not demotivate us but people need to know and CAF need to take responsibility. (It is) 2020 and we want Africa to grow but this is not how we will get there,” the Arsenal striker said.
The Gabon team and the entire delegation were forced to sleep at the airport, having been barred from leaving due to what was referred to as ‘administrative problems”.
However, after some government intervention, they were allowed to leave in the morning and head to their hotel, with about 10 hours to prepare for their crucial qualifier against the hosts.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
