With qualified clubs across Africa
already putting finishing touches to their preparations ahead of the 2016
Africa Men’s club championship holding in Egypt, the Assistant coach of Customs
Basketball club of Lagos, Abba Mohammed says the club is at risk of missing out
of the tournament.
Abba Mohammed explained that with the
non-availability of funds for training, visa processing, transportation and
other logistics needed by the club under the watch of Scott Nnaji who came 2nd
at the FIBA Africa zone 3 elimination series held in Togo, hopes of
participating at the event is fast fading out.
Speaking earlier today, he said he
thought actions were already being taken to release funds until yesterday when
he realized that nothing is being done.
He appealed to the management of the
Nigerian Customs service to expedite action because the possibility of meeting
up with necessary logistics and requirements by FIBA Africa is daily becoming impossible.
“I just understand that they submitted
the file yesterday and the finals are starting on the 7th of December and I
also understand that it will take the Egyptian Embassy about a week to process
and issue visas. So that means if at the end of this week
nothing happens, I don’t think we will have the chance of making it”.
He concluded that after the team
surprised all bookmakers to qualify for the continent, non-participation will
seriously affect the morale of the players.
“I must be
honest with you. Already their morale is down, because they are not sure if
they are traveling. I have been receiving calls every 2 hours on whether we are
traveling or whether we are not traveling and honestly, I don’t know what to tell
them.”
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