Djiboutian Football Federation President, Souleiman Hassan Waberi, has apologized to the country’s football fraternity for the heavy 8-0 loss the Sharks suffered to Algeria last week in the World Cup qualifying campaign.
Waberi has released a statement on the federation’s official website offering the apology.
He attributed partly the loss to the numerical disadvantage which Djibouti suffered after Batio Youssef was red carded in the 23rd minute of the Group A match.
“In this difficult past that our football is going through, following the heavy defeat suffered by our National Team against Algeria, we can only apologize to the sporting public and to the whole of the Djiboutian people for this defeat to which we could not, obviously, expect,” he said.
Waberi admitted that the gulf in class between Djibouti and the continent’s number one ranked team, Algeria, was huge.
“Then, our opponent of the day was none other than Algeria undefeated in the last 30 games played, some against nations from other continents than Africa.
“We are not telling you anything by saying that the Algerian National Team is the African champion and is currently among the best in the world,” he said.
The loss undermined Djibouti’s chances of progressing past the group stages but Waberi has said the country’s football future is bright.
Djibouti, who are bottom of the group, host Niger later today. Niger also are yet to win let alone score in the group.
Algeria lead the group with three points. Only one overall top team from the group will proceed to the final knockout stages of the qualifiers.