Asante Kotoko CAF Champions League opponents Al Hilal Omdurman are set to arrive in Ghana on Saturday, December 19, 2020 ahead of their game against the Ghanaian giants next week, ghanasportspage.com can exclusively confirm.
The Sudanese giants have confirmed their travel arrangements from Sudan to Ghana as they face Asante Kotoko on Wednesday, December 23, 2020 at the Accra sports stadium. A contingent of 38 persons will set off from Sudan on Friday midnight and are expected to arrive at the Kotoka International Airport, Accra – on Saturday midday.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with ghanasportspage.com, Vice President and Leader of Delegation of the club, Mr Tahir Younus explained the traveling arrangement details of the contingent set to arrive in Ghana.
“The total people coming [to Ghana for the game against Asante Kotoko] is around 38 persons”, Tahir Younus confirmed.
Al Hilal will travel to Ghana with a total of 27 players, almost double the number required for the game on the day.
Legitimately, the club will need a minimum of 15 players to honour the game according to the Champions League Competition regulations, and one may wonder why “Tha Blue Wave” are parading as much as 27 players for just a single game. The Leader of Delegation has been explaining the reasons behind their decision, saying, the club is a afraid of covid-19 infections and does not want to be affected just as it happend to Mauritanian side FC Nouadhibou, whose number of players who traveled to Ghana were reduced by the virus, leading to walkover for Asante Kotoko.
“You know the corona, we are afraid of corona so we got all the players in the list with us to avoid the problem that faced the Mauritanian team in Accra”, Tahir explained. “They got three or four players infected and then they couldn’t complete the official list so we are taking all the possible players available with us you know, so if we are faced with same problem then we can manage. We are flying with 27 players”, he added.
The 38-man contingent has been divided into two; one part will board Egyptian Air while the other boards Ethiopian Air. The two will both fly at the same time and are expected to arrive in Accra at the same time, around Saturday midday.
“We are leaving tomorrow (Friday, December 18) midnight flying and arriving in Accra around 8:30-12:00 midday through Egypt Air, but we have some of our colleagues flying with Ethiopian Airlines because as you know the big number of people we don’t have enough seats in one flight so we are flying most of the people through Ethiopian Airline but they will leave at the same time and they will arrive same time”, he confirmed.