The fixture was previously scheduled to take place in
Kenya, but was now transferred to Djibouti who automatically accepted Somalia’s
request to stage the match in Djibouti where Somalia used as a home country for
the past 24 years.
"Somalia will be welcoming Rwanda in Djibouti where the
return leg will take place on 10th of May 2015 at 4pm local time”
Somali Football Federation media officer, Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar said in a
press statement.
"We commend the president of Djibouti Football Federation, Mr. Souleiman Hassan Waberi for his quick move to arrange the venue for Somalia to welcome their Rwandan rivals for the return match of African U-23 championship qualifiers”. Somali Football Federation also praises the CECAFA office in Nairobi for providing all possible assistances to Somalia.
On April 14, Somali FA sent a request letter to the Football
Kenya Federation, which allowed Somali FA to use Kasarani National stadium to
welcome Rwanda on May 9, as on the same day Kenya have a match at Nyayo National
Stadium.
"It came as a surprise to us, when Football Kenya
Federation, said in a letter on Monday that it was not able to organize
Somalia-Rwanda match in Nairobi claiming that Somalia didn’t obtain necessary clearance
from Kenyan government, which is not true because the government of Kenya already
granted entry visas to Somalia” Somali Football Federation said in its press
statement.
"Somali FA is very grateful to the government of Kenya,
who always extended brotherly welcome to our team and facilitated everything we
needed when Somalia had competitions in Kenya” the statement said.
"Football Kenya Federation has taken an unwanted move which
is not good for the fair play and as well as damages the relationship between
the two associations”.
Somali Football Federation Media Department
Email:sinfo@somsoccer.com