Bujumbura - Xinhua
Fourteen football players of Burundi\'s Intamba mu Rugamba are stranded at Johannesburg International Airport in South Africa for failing to get an airline connection while the return match is taking place on Tuesday afternoon in the Burundian capital Bujumbura, an official at Burundi\'s sports ministry told Xinhua on Monday. \"Only four players of the national team have arrived in Burundi after playing Lesotho\'s national football team in the first leg match against on Friday. Fourteen players, their two coaches, their physicians are still stuck at Johannesburg International Airport while they are supposed to play the return match tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday),\" said Simon Mbonabuca, adviser at the sports ministry and head of the delegation which went to the first leg match said. Mbonabuca said the Burundian players had made their bookings on Kenya Airways airliner and were supposed to leave Johannesburg at 00H40 (22H00 Sunday night GMT) early on Monday. An official at Kenya Airways acknowledged that there was a problem of connection because the company changed of aircraft which could not take all the booked passengers. The Kenya Airways official said the Burundian footballers were immediately put on the next connection to Bujumbura by the Kenya Airways Johannesburg team and the players are expected to be in Bujumbura on Tuesday morning at 01H45 (23H45 Monday night GMT). In their first leg match against Lesotho\'s national football team on Friday last week, the Burundian national Intamba mu Rugamba team had been defeated with 1-0. The game was played within the preliminary eliminatory matches of the 2014 World Football Cup due in Brasil. Meanwhile, Lesotho\'s national team arrived in the Burundian capital Bujumbura on Saturday - just one day after the first leg match in Lesotho.