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AFCON 2021 Qualifiers: The Black Stars flew to São Tomé via military aircraft, here's why

The members of Ghana's senior national team left to São Tomé on Sunday afternoon by military aircraft.

AFCON 2021 Qualifiers: The Black Stars flew to São Tomé via military aircraft, here's why

The official Ghana FA handle on Twitter showed the Black Stars leaving by military aircraft.

This made people wonder why the team did not use a commercial airline for the one hour, thirty minutes journey.

Others argued that TAP Portugal runs a regular commercial service from Accra to 

São Tomé.

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However, FA officials decided to use Air Force carrier due to time factor.

The match between both countries will be on Monday at 1pm (Ghana time). The game should end by 3pm.

Most Black Stars players have to return to their clubs as soon as possible so they are not sanctioned for late return.

The challenge is that TAP Portugal will not fly out of the island until Tuesday evening – almost 28 hours after the game.

In order to prevent what happened in 2017 from repeating itself, the officials chose to use the military aircraft.

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The 2017 fiasco

In September 2017, the former Ghana captain Asamoah Gyan chartered a private jet to fly the entire Black Stars team from Congo.

The team during the World Cup qualifier at the time won by 5-1 in Brazzaville.

However, after the game, there were challenges with the flight arrangements for the departure of the team. This followed the government’s decision to suddenly renege on footing the bill to transport the team back to Accra.

This created chaos since many of the players needed to fly out of Accra to their clubs before specified dates to avoid sanctions.

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