Our trip to South Africa is a unique one to be part of the journalists around the world to cover the first World Cup hosted in Africa but it was too stressful to achieve that as we went through a lot of difficulties on the way.
It all started back in 2009 June when we attended the first phase “win in Africa with Africa” training in Abuja and the second phase in December the same year in Senegal which was sponsored by the European Union and organized by FIFA
During both phases we were able to achieve our goals and objective even though it was not an easy task
After both training FIFA made it clear that they are not going to provide any air tickets to any journalist who wants to cover the World Cup which made it very difficult for us – as you know the country Sierra Leone where we come from it is not easy to secure sponsorship .
It was from this point that our dream to cover the first World Cup in Africa was almost dying as we need to have accreditation to cover the World Cup it was at this point the SLFA President Nahim Kadi came on board to assist us with two accreditation space out of the five space allocated to them by FIFA
Then we were able to apply for accreditation to FIFA which we eventually received in March this year. After receiving the accreditation we decided to write for sponsorship to companies, individuals but only three came to our rescue in the dying minutes – that was Mercury International. Abubakarr Kabba former Administrative Secretary SLFA and the National Olympic Committee (NOC)
With out these people covering the World Cup in South Africa would not have been a reality and even our trip to South Africa only materialized on Monday June 7 around 5 pm when we received our ticket from IPC travel agency at Aberdeen road to travel the next day to complete our mission which we started last year in June.
During the training it was me and Sahr Morris but this time around coming to cover the World Cup in South Africa we were three in number with Fajar Barrie coming on board.
We departed Lungi International airport at 5.30 pm on Tuesday 8 June and we finally arrived in South Africa on Wednesday June 9 at 10.30 am South Africa local time covering about 11 hours.
At Johannesburg airport it was at that point that we received our visa which is supposed to last for three months expiring in September this year. At the air port we separated with Fajar Barrie who was waiting for his luggage. We waited for him for at least a hour we never saw him so we decided to hire a car to take us to SandTon Sun Hostel to collect our accreditations for the FIFA Congress. After receiving the accreditation we for lunch after lunch we headed for the congress at Johannesburg which was well attended by international and local journalists
Our main problem that we are facing presently is accommodation.
