''Our club officials made us miss a lifetime opportunity.'' Al Salam Wau players.

It is known St George progressed to the next round in the 22nd CAF Champions League by as its opponent, the South Sudan Al Salam Wau was not present and forfeited the preliminary match yesterday. What is the reaction of Al Salam Wau players about the situation? We have made contact with few players and told us about the situation since the draw. The South Sudan club players were happy starting with the draw. Here were their reasons.

"St George is among the big clubs in East Africa. We know about the results they brought playing against big teams in last season. Playing with this big team was a good opportunity for us. The club signs players from other African countries other than players from home. And this was another good opportunity. South Sudan League is weak. On top of this, the conflict in the county is casting a dark shadow on the football. And this is a problem for us, the players."

Yeferesegnochu Gets /የፈረሰኞቹ ገጽ/ made contacts with some who are close to the club and was trying to find information since few days before the match and specially after the arrival of the guest club became ambiguous. And on the process, we came to realize the ambition the players had about the match. The players had hope of coming to play until the last moment. This is how they expressed their feeling about the match not taking place.

"Our club officials made us miss a lifetime opportunity. The fault is all the club officials'. We know St George wanted the match, but for sure it can't be more than we wanted it. We are sorry the match did not take place. We repeatedly asked our officials to work on making this match happen. They were telling us they are fixing things until the last moment and we were hopeful. But it failed."

"We were seeing photos of fans inside and outside of the stadium. You understand what our feeling may be when we see those pictures. We had in mind to capture St George's attention on the match by showing quality performance. We also entertained our opportunity to be scouted by other clubs in the country. But this did not become the case".

‘’South Sudan League did not start at the moment. We don't have any match on the scheduled return leg match day in Juba. We would be happy if St George will be willing to play a friendly match with us on that day. The players want this badly if your club St George will do this for us. It will be our pleasure if there will be a friendly match between Al Salam Wau and St George on the return leg date of CAF Champions League in Juba’’

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