By Sulayman Bah
Government is still to act on the visit of Barrack Young Controllers a
club from Liberia where the ebola virus is worst reported.
Real de Banjul slugs it out with BYC February 14th in the Caf
Champions League preliminary qualifiers at the Banjul mini-stadium.And, ahead of the team’s arrival – a 39-man delegation –there’s still
no word from government institutions amid concerns over Ebola.
Real de Banjul are poised to host the Controllers in a likely
two-legged tie in Banjul. The encounter was initially shrouded in
doubt after the All Whites got drawn with the Monrovia-based outfit
amid concerns of potential spread of the virus.
Dilating on the saga when the question popped up, Real’s VP Bakary
Jammeh told a briefing yesterday: ‘Enquiries were made by the National
Sports Council to the Ministry of Health and also the Ministry of
Youth and Sports, we trust they’ll do the best for us.’
‘We are law abiding citizens. We will abide when the government says
otherwise. We don’t want to sit back and wait until two days before
then we start preparing. We respect the laws of football and the
country but I hope they (Barrack Young Controllers) will come,’ Willy
Abraham in a follow up comment stated.
The Liberian league champions have been told by CAF to look for an
alternative venue in the wake of the ongoing ebola epidemic there.
For their inability to play home matches in Liberia, the Liberian
Football Association, Foroyaa Sport understands, have since written to
their Gambian counterparts seeking approval to play both legs in
Banjul – a thing the GFF is evaluating.
Playing both matches in Gambia will be to Real De Banjul’s advantage
with home support to count on but whether Barrack Young Controllers
can foot expensive hotel bills remains another matter.
Feverish attempts to get comments from the National Sports Council and Ministry of
Youth and Sports proved vain yesterday.
Ebola deaths
Ebola is a pandemic triggered by a virus. A case was first spotted
reportedly early February last year in Guinea Conakry before it
quickly spread to Nigeria, Sierra Leone Mali and Liberia.
Three out of the four aforesaid West Africa countries have been
declared free with the exception of Mali and Liberia were, according
to reports, confirmed cases have risen for the first time in January 2015.
Transferred via fluids, handshakes amongst others, with headache,
rashes, vomits, dizziness, apparent signs, the virus is believed to
have claimed at least 9,000 lives with an estimated death rate of 50
to sixty percent in West Africa for people hospitalized with
the disease, if a recent World health Organisation report is any to go
by.]]>
