Nigeria’s sole CAF Confederation Cup campaigner Enyimba are on the brink of missing out on Wednesday’s matchday five fixture against Libya’s Al Ahly Benghazi due to flight issues.
Enyimba are scheduled to face Al Ahly Benghazi at the Martyrs of February Stadium but have yet to secure Schengen visas for their trip to Libya enroute Turkey with just two days to the match.
Enyimba had written to the Confederation of African Football to have the match rescheduled so they can seek out other means of transportation but CAF on Sunday denied their request which has further placed them in a dilemma, the club’s media officer Zazi Bariza revealed.
Bariza disclosed that the team currently at their base in Aba will need about N130m to charter a private flight to the match venue if they are to honour the game.
“The only flight that can get us into Libya on time is Turkish airlines and that will reroute us through Istanbul where we will all need transit visas which most of the players don’t have,”
“We have our passports with us now and we could take them to the Turkish embassy on Monday (today) for the Schengen visas but that may take three to five working days which we also don’t have as the match is on Wednesday.
“The other option is to take a chartered flight but the price is about N130m which we don’t have at the moment, the only other option is for us to forfeit the match and get walked over and for that, there are consequences, Enyimba can be thrown out of the competition, they may be barred from featuring in a CAF organised tournament for two years and this they will want to avoid.”
