El-Meriekh FC Juba - Courtesy

El-Merriekh FC Juba have bowed out of the CAF Confederation Cup after being beaten 3-0 by Angola’s Academia Lobito on Sunday night.

The first leg played in Nairobi on September 17 ended goalless, leaving a decisive second leg.

The financially challenged South Sudanese side were faced with a tricky situation when the first group of only 10 players had to travel without a coach due to alleged booking challenges.

The partial squad had no choice but to face 11 opponents as if red-carded, because the second group, who traveled on the second day, could not make it to the West African nation in time for the game.

The worst of all was that El-Merriekh played without a coach.

El Merriekh head coach, Simon James, who spoke to Eye radio from Luanda on Monday morning said his team faced a difficult condition as the team managed to send only ten players without him.

Mr James said part of his team tried to catch up with the rest already in Angola ahead of the game but booking issues denied them.

He says the Angola team has capitulated on the disastrous situation of his team to earn the decisive win.

“We took off from Kampala to Luanda through Dubai four hours before the kickoff time but a local fight from Luanda to Lobito was a big problem for us, we were 12 people, 7 players and another team member,” James narrated.

“We were unable to get the booking on time and we ended up stacking in Luanda.”

He accused their opponent of playing breaching mutual arrangements to negatively impact their performance.

“To me, it was a premeditation obstacle made by the team members of Lobito because they told us first that there is possibility of five members to travel but later, they said no way.”