MASERU — The Lesotho Football Association (Lefa) wants Kenyan Airways to pay half of the US$8 000 (about M63 000) they incurred in additional expenses when they missed their flight from Gabon to Sao Tomé last month.
Likuena were stuck in Gabon after they failed to connect to Sao Tomé for an African Cup of Nations qualifying match a fortnight ago.
Their flight from Johannesburg, which was supposed to land in Gabon, had to be diverted to Cameroon after another plane had a breakdown on the runway.
Lefa this week said they were engaging Kenyan Airways which they blame for their additional expenses.
Lefa chief executive officer, Mofihli Makoele, told the Lesotho Times on Tuesday that there is a tug-of-war between them and the airline over who must pay Likuena’s expenses from Gabon to Sao Tomé.
He said Lefa want Kenyan Airways to pay 50 percent of US$8 000 Lesotho incurred after being forced to go to Sao Tomé via Cameroon.
Likuena went on to lose 1-0 on aggregate and is now out of the African Nations Cup qualifiers.
Makoele said the additional US$8 000 they had to fork out came from Lefa president, Salemane Phafane’s own pocket.
“Right now we are in talks with Kenyan Airways because we need them to pay half of the expenses we incurred,” he added.
The matter had come to a boil because Kenyan Airways were claiming that Lefa did not disclose that they were connecting from Gabon to Sao Tomé.
“Despite all this we still want them to pay half of the US$8 000 that we incurred,” Makoele insisted.
Efforts to get comment from Kenyan Airways on Tuesday afternoon were fruitless.
