Caf Champions League: Sigh of relief as Gor Mahia granted authorization to travel

Gor Mahia have finally confirmed they will honour their Caf Champions League first round first leg against CR Belouizdad as scheduled on Wednesday after getting a solution to their travelling logistical problems.

It was initially feared the Kenyan champions would not make it to North Africa for the game and had even requested the Confederation of African Football (Caf) to reschedule their game.

K’Ogalo have now confirmed they have secured the necessary facilitation to enable them to travel.

“No passenger flight is allowed to land in Algeria and we had to seek authorization from Algeria, which we got and that had to be confirmed by their Embassy here in Nairobi as well – we got the two important letters that we are free to travel,” club’s chairman Ambrose Rachier revealed.

“With the authorization letters, we were connected to Qatar Airline by the authorities because that’s the only Airline they use for evacuation and is allowed within their airspace. We are trying our best to make it to Algeria – we are trying to secure the group booking then hit the runway.”

The veteran administrator went on to explain the measures the club had taken to ensure the game is played.

“As an option, we had to place in our request for the match to be played in any North African country where flights are allowed,” he continued.

“We haven’t received any confirmation on that but we will now go-ahead to travel since we were given authorization. 

“Our biggest hurdle is the locked Algerian airspace, bookings from Nairobi are a big problem.

“Authorization to enter Algerian space has been acquired through late [on Saturday] but at least that hurdle is now behind us. We are ready with Covid-19 tests done with all results confirmed negative. It is all systems go.”  

Now the next hurdle is for the team to settle the players’ allowances and salaries. Earlier on, the players had staged a go-slow, threatening to boycott the game.

“We have not been paid our November monies as well as this [December] month,” a senior player in the team told Goal on Sunday.

“Yes, we had a meeting on Saturday and our stand was made clear. The office should pay us our allowances and salaries before we talk about the Algeria trip.

“As it stands, nobody has communicated to us regarding the logistics of the game. We are in the dark over everything, but again, they cannot tell us because our stand has been made clear.”