South Africa football giants Kaizer Chiefs could fail to travel to Morocco for Saturday’s Caf Champions League Group C match against Wydad Casablanca as the Amakhosi travelling delegation are yet to obtain visas to enter the North African country.
The Kaizer Chiefs squad was initially scheduled to depart today and arrive in North Africa tomorrow.
The game is set for this weekend in Casablanca and is Chiefs’ first ever group stage match.
Here is the Kaizer Chiefs’ statement in full:
With just under 12 hours before the Kaizer Chiefs squad is due to depart for Morocco, members of the traveling party have not been issued with visas to enter the North African country despite applications being submitted timeously.
Chiefs are scheduled to face Wydad Casablanca in their first group match of the 2021 CAF Champions League.
After the draw and the fixture announcement, Kaizer Chiefs made all the necessary arrangements to travel including booking flights, securing accommodation, submission of visa applications and everything that is required for the trip.
Following the submission of the application for visas, the club has been in constant communication with CAF, the Moroccan Embassy in SA, South African Embassy in Morocco, SAFA, Wydad Casablanca, the Moroccan football association and the Department of International Relations and Corporation (DIRCO) to ensure that the application for visas is processed and approved.
Wydad did confirm that they are awaiting confirmation from their Ministry of Health to grant Kaizer Chiefs special permission to enter the country because South Africa is on the list of countries that have been banned from entering Morocco due of the high numbers of the Covid-19 infections. No response has been received by Wydad or Kaizer Chiefs to this effect.
Kaizer Chiefs will once again send a delegation to the Moroccan Embassy this morning in an effort to seek clarity and request for the issuing of visas so the team can catch their flight and honour the fixture against Wydad in Casablanca on Saturday.
