Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has slammed the Confederation of Africa (CAF) after being made to feel like a “hostage”, with the Arsenal captain and his Gabon team-mates having been forced to sleep in an airport ahead of an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Gambia.
Patrice Neveu’s men are scheduled to play the West African country in Bakau on Monday and they arrived at the Banjul International Airport late on Sunday night.
Upon their arrival, the Panthers were delayed at the airport with reports indicating their passports were seized despite providing their coronavirus results to the immigration officers for checks.
Aubameyang detailed the frustrating wait on his Instagram story in the early hours of Monday, posting videos and photographs initially of his team-mates lounging around having had their passports taken from them by security.
But as the hours passed, the photos started to show the majority of the squad attempting to sleep on the floor of the airport, using their luggage as pillows.
Having arrived at 23:30 local time, Aubameyang began to show his frustration after waiting for three hours, posting a video at 02:31 that was accompanied by a caption that read: “Still waiting to enter Gambia, and we play at 4 pm. Nice.”
A follow-up soon after showed the team listening to music and joking, with Aubameyang adding that “they will not discourage us”.
Just before 06:00, Gabon were allowed into the country, just 10 hours before their scheduled kick-off.
“Finally in the bus. Thanks for the extra motivation, Gambia,” Aubameyang wrote.
