The journey of Accra Hearts of Oak sc to Algeria for JS Saoura game is tiring.
A match to be played in Africa but landing in Algeria, the Ghanaian club must first transit in Cote D’Ivoire spend close to 270 minutes at the Airport before connecting to Istanbul in Turkey where I am told Hearts would spend a night.
From the European country Turkey, to Algeria’s capital Algiers before finally move to virtually half a day trip to Saoura’s base, Bechar for the game on Sunday.
I’m already tired explaining this.
Unlike FIFA World Cup other competitions where organizers give participation money for appearing teams CAF has nothing as such but rather tell you play and qualify for the ‘Money Zone’.
You record financial losses if you fail to qualify for the so-called money zone.
But not to ‘fault’ CAF entirely Hearts got the draw over a month ago and could’ve started all the preparations including acquiring chartered flight to make this long winding trip to the North African brothers.
Similar to Saoura’s when coming to Ghana for the first leg in Accra where they lost by 2-0, the Algerians had to make series of transits just to honour the game.
Existing problems to deal with in the CAF Inter Club competitions is the ‘mafias’ one may face including dealing difference in climatic conditions.
These are undisputable factors that can have effect on the performance of players and the match results as well.
For Ghanaian interest, I hope Hearts sail through this fixture to qualify for the Group Stage (money zone) but the management of the club must engage the services of Travel and Tour Expert to give advice on such situations.
Should they qualify they will be making further more travels and the earlier they consider this as an urgent matter the better.
All the best Hearts.