Eritrea’s AFCON place in doubt after players disappear in South Africa

Eritrea’s participation in the Africa ‌Cup of Nations preliminaries is in question after seven of their 10 local footballers disappeared following their victory in Eswatini ⁠last month. The players went missing after Eritrea completed a 4-1 aggregate triumph over Eswatini on March 31 – a result that secured them ⁠a spot in the group-stage qualifiers for the continental showpiece. From the 24-member squad that participated in the qualifying tie, only 10 were locally-based players, of which just three returned.

The seven players are believed to have disappeared when the national team arrived in South Africa en route from Eswatini to Eritrea via Egypt, an official of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) told the AFP news agency. “This incident is a mystery. Eritrea beat Eswatini on March 31 in Lobamba and no one seems certain what happened thereafter,” he said.

“We believe all the players left Eswatini for South Africa. But when the travelling party landed in Cairo, seven players were missing. ” Recently appointed Eritrea coach Hesham Yakan, a defender in the Egypt 1990 World Cup squad, chose 24 players, including 14 based abroad, for the two-leg preliminary qualifier against Eswatini.

His selection included Eritreans based in Australia, Egypt, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines and Sweden. Ali Suleiman from Egyptian top-flight side Ismailia Electricity Club scored three goals as Eritrea won 2-0 and 2-1 to qualify for the main qualifying phase, which will comprise 12 four-team groups. The first leg against Eswatini was staged in the Moroccan city of Meknes because Eritrea does not have an international-standard stadium.