PANJIM: The FC Goa team was stranded at the Dabolim Airport for almost 10 hours on their Indian Super League Match Day. Reaching Kolkata for the match against bitter rivals ATK at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata, FC Goa came from behind to hold the home team to a 1-1 draw.
The team took off for Kolkata on January 2, but due to technical problems in the chartered flight, had to return back. Coach Sergio Lobera’s men were left frustrated for the second day on Wednesday, after further snags, which forced the ISL officials to delay the match by couple of hours to allow the team to reach Kolkata. (Read Edit on page 8)
According to a FC Goa official, the team were scheduled to fly out on Tuesday morning, but due to the technical problems in their chartered flight (Zoom Air), the departure was halted and rescheduled on Wednesday morning (match day) after the flight failed to take off in the evening too. However, the players had to vacate the plane for the second time in two days due to the same issue.
It was learnt that, there was a chartered flight waiting at Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) and Delhi to pick the team after FC Goa’s chartered flight failed to provide the needful services and avoid any further delay. But luck didn’t favour the Gaurs as Dabolim airport had to be shut down following the crash of MIG29K on Wednesday noon, piling further misery.
The players who arrived at the airport at around 7 am saw their high spirits dampened with the chain of events and were led to a resort at Bogmalo at noon for lunch where they learnt that their delayed flight was re-scheduled for 5.50 pm and returned to the airport at 3 pm.
The players took to the social media, posting pictures of how they were spending the time at the airport. Some players vent out their frustration regarding the services rendered during their journey.
The ordeal continued as the players had to wait even longer and the flight took off at 6.15 pm from Dabolim Airport bringing an end to their ordeal.
The team arrived at Kolkata at 9.10 and headed straight to the stadium for the kick off which took place at 10.45 pm, much to the joy of the home team and their supporters who waited in anticipation from the actual kick off time.
