OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abidjan | Thursday 7.30pm.
THE Cte d’Ivoire’s national soccer squad were released from a military camp outside Yamoussoukro on Thursday after being held since their defeat in the African Nations Cup.
The players, who were detained at the Zambakro “School for the Maintenance of Peace,” arrived late afternoon in Abidjan, where they are due to meet the head of Cte d’Ivoire’s junta-led government, Robert Guei, and Sports Minister Mathias Doue.
After being eliminated in the first round, the Elephants team needed to be taught “a civic lesson” because its players were “indiciplined,” the junta’s spokesman, Issa Sangare Yeresso said on Wednesday.
Earlier this week, a source close to General Guei said the military ruler was unhappy with the team’s performance.
“These are players who are spoiled. Each of them has received five million CFA (US$8000). And now fans are angry.”
Officials at the presidency later said the players’ detention was the result of “a series of misunderstandings.”
Yeresso said the team was supposed to be brought from Accra to Abidjan but a Kenya Airways plane crash on Sunday evening forced the team to land at Yamoussoukro airport instead. — AFP