Al Merreikh has arrived late in Nigeria for Wednesday’s Caf Champions League first round second leg encounter against Enyimba.
According to a post on the club’s Twitter handle, the Sudanese top-flight side landed in Abuja on Sunday afternoon aboard Al Zaeem’s private plane. There, they boarded another aircraft to Owerri before heading to Aba by road.
The Leader’s expected day of arival was Saturday, and their inability to show up as planned propelled the Nigeria Football Federation to write to the Confederation of African Football – asking them of their whereabouts.
“We write to bring to your attention that A Merreikh SC communicated to us its schedule to arrive in Nigeria on Saturday, 2nd January 2021 at about 1800hrs via chartered flight through Port Harcourt International Airport.
Thus, we mobilize resources in readiness to receive the team as scheduled,” the statement from NFF read.
“However, on 1st January, 2021, we received another correspondence intimating us of its arrival on Saturday, 2nd January 2021 via EgyptAir at about 1345hrs.
“We deployed vehicles to Port Harcourt Airport and personnel to Lagos Airport in anticipation of the arrival of the team in any of the two entry points.”