18 members of the Eritrean national football team have gone missing in the Ugandan capital Kampala after the team was eliminated in the ongoing Council for East and Central African Football Associations (Cecafa) Senior Challenge Cup.

Sylvia Nakamya, the manager of Sky Hotel, where they were staying said on Monday that the whole team went shopping on Sunday but only seven and five officials returned.

"Later five other players requested to go see their relatives and they also did not come back. We therefore have only five officials and two players now out of the 25," she said.

Moses Magogo, chairman of the local organizing committee of the tournament and also a vice president of the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) in-charge of Administration said they will wait and see what happens by end of Monday before they can start a serious search for the players.

"We have also heard the news and are trying to find out which players exactly disappeared so that we can alert police," FUFA Chief Executive Officer Edgar Watson told Xinhua Monday.

Nicholas Musonye, the Secretary General of Cecafa said he had warned the hosts to be very alert when dealing with the Eritreans because they are found of disappearing.

"I told FUFA to have police watch over the Eritrean team and if that has happened then it's very bad," he said.

The Eritrean team was ejected from the tournament at the group stage after drawing with Zanzibar 0-0, losing 3-2 to Malawi and falling 2-0 to Rwanda in their last match last Saturday.

Eritrean players have had a poor record of disappearing when they go for tournaments outside their country. Endi

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)