JAKARTA - Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and his colleagues in the Gabon national team were forced to spend the night sleeping on the airport floor ahead of an important African Cup qualifier against Gambia.
Aubameyang took to social media to highlight their plight after arriving at Banjul Airport on Sunday, ahead of Monday's Group D match in the Gambian capital.
The Gabon delegation was told they were not allowed to leave the airport due to administrative problems and had to sleep on the floor before being allowed to leave in the morning following government intervention.
No excuse was given for not allowing the team to leave the airport and head to their hotel upon arrival and even by the standards of the game in previous African football this was unusual. The Gabon Federation posted a photo of the incident on their Facebook page but without comment.
"Good job CAF, it's as if we go back to the 1990s," wrote Aubameyang on Twitter referring to an earlier weakness that blamed the African Football Confederation.
"This will not demotivate us but people need to know and the CAF has to take responsibility. (It's) 2020 and we want Africa to grow but this is not the way we get there," the Arsenal striker added later.
Ça nous démotivera pas mais ils faut que les gens sachent et surtout que la @CAF_Online prennent ces responsabilité.2020 et on veut que l'Afrique grandissent ce n'est pas comme ça qu'on va y arriver !!! https://t.co/7qCeYNaBmJ
- Aubameyang PE (@ Aubameyang7) November 16, 2020
Gabon top the group standings, three points ahead of Gambia, who are looking to reach the Africa Cup of Nations finals for the first time. The top two teams in the group - which also include Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo - advance to the finals in Cameroon in early 2022.
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