Black Stars run into flight connection problems ..

GHANA'S senior national football team, the Black Stars, who left Accra Wednesday night for a crucial Nations Cup qualifying match in Maseru, Lesotho, were still stranded at Johannesburg International Airport by Thursday night.

The team of 17 players and seven officials, ran into difficulties at the South African airport where they were scheduled to connect, when it was revealed by airport officials that only 12 out of the 24-man squad had been booked for the onward flight to Maseru.

A further breakdown is that the 12 booked for the flight to Maseru were to depart in two different batches of five and seven at intervals of eight hours.

The first batch of four players and an official were, however, off-loaded few minutes to take-off when deeper troubles emerged over the acquisition of visa. According to the Ghanaian officials, they had assurance from the Lesotho authorities that visas for the football contingent would be issued on arrival.

The information, according to delegation leader K. Bram-Larbi of the Ghana Football Association, was conveyed earlier to the Ghana FA and this he made known to the South African airline officials.

When the Airlines officials made the necessary enquiries by phone for a confirmation of the Ghanaian story, an official at the Lesotho Immigration denied knowledge of any such arrangement.

Worse of all the misfortunes, the proof of that committal, a faxed message from the Lesotho Football Federation to its Ghanaian counterpart, could not be produced on demand. It had been left behind in Accra.

The airline authorities then moved swiftly to off-load the Ghanaian players and officials, who were just about boarding, to eliminate the risk of bearing the cost in the event of the group being repatriated.

The embarrassing scenario sent the team leaders rushing to establish contacts with Accra, from where the visa assurance message was faxed to the South African Airlines authorities.

As the football officials effectively supported by fast-thinking Ghana High Commission officials, led by Mr Ashie, moved to salvage the situation, emotionally-drained and physically weary players bore the brunt.

An all-night flight from Accra Wednesday night into Thursday had already taken a heavy toll and they fought the added misery by sleeping long hours on the cold airport floors.

The confirmation finally came from Maseru over the issuance of visa at the airport, after the fax from Accra had facilitated contact with the Lesotho FA which, in turn, informed their immigration.

By the final arrangement then, the confirmed batch of the Ghanaian contingent was scheduled to leave Johannesburg on Thursday night while efforts were being made to get the others on flight today to Maseru.