Time constraints, pilgrimage season destroy hopes of Algerian fans to support Desert Warriors in Ouagadougou
National Syndicate of Algerian of Travel Agencies ruled out the possibility of organizing special flights from Algeria towards Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou, to support the national team during the match against Burkina Faso team in the first leg play-off of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.
Ilias Senoussi, spokesman for the syndicate told Echorouk on Wednesday yesterday; “Travel Agencies could not be committed to Algerian fans and face bad consequences. So far, we do not think about the possibility of transferring the supporters of the national team to Burkina Faso, and rule out the idea of organizing flights to Ouagadougou, because the time is neither right nor enough, as each agency should undertake various measures before organizing any trip to the outside of Algeria, including the move to the country concerned and survey the situation there, by inspect the quality of hotels that are available in the period where the game is played, in addition to the security aspect, which is the most important thing for us because the safety of the passengers is important to us too. When we travel outside Algeria we should make sure of the abundance and transport of supporters from the hotel to the stadium back and forth, and all of these procedures require a longer time than is believed by ordinary citizen”.
Organize trips to the jungles of Africa requires a great potential as well. The date of the match coincides with the season of Hajj and Eid al-Adha, and as is well known, the best travel agencies are interested in trips of Algerians to the holy sites, with respect to other agencies, noting that the process of transferring the supporters is not imposed on agencies, but some of them can do individual initiatives.”
On the other hand, an informed source said that the Federation of Algerian Football cannot guarantee anything for the supporters of the national team, if they moved to Burkina Faso, but admission of tickets to the stadium, as FAF is accustomed on the distribution of tickets of the matches of Desert Warriors outside Algeria for free on supporters. FAF’s duty is to organizing the games, and ensuring the rival team only.