
Public donations help secure plane tickets to bring home some members of SA soccer team stranded in Portugal
Thanks to donations made possible by the public, R54,000 was raised.
Twelve players, along with one coach, will touchdown on home soil Wednesday evening.
KFM presenter, Tracey Lange, confirmed that 12 tickets had been secured.
"Our desire is to make sure they all get home in one go. We don't want to take a while and prioritise anyone above the rest. We don't want anyone's kids to feel that they are more important than anyone else's. The coaches are doing their best to keep everyone fine."
The team's dream trip turned into a nightmare when the organisers failed to book return flights after spending a week in Spain competing at an annual soccer tournament.
One of the coaches working for the organisers, Jayvin Chisholm, said many of the coaches were furious with the top management of BT Academy, which admitted in a letter calling for donations that the funds paid by the players had fallen short of covering the estimated cost of the trip.
"He's just trying to keep afloat with the coaches that are willing to even speak to him at this moment, being myself and coach Clayton, because the other coaches, they won't speak to him at all because they are just so furious about the whole situation."

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