By The team from F-17 Football Academy that was stranded in Turkey’s Antalya Airport has caught a flight to Istanbul on Sunday (July 17) afternoon and from Istanbul, they have departed for Copenhagen in Denmark on an 8pm flight.
The team has arrived safely to their hostel in Gothenburg this early morning.
A team of 21 players from Singapore’s Youth Football Academy, F17, were stranded in Turkey’s Antalya Airport. The group, including 13 children aged eight to 14, was going to play the Gothia Cup, a well-known youth tournament in Sweden. They were on their way to Istanbul for a transit flight to Copenhagen, but the flight was diverted to the southern city of Antalya after an attempted military coup in the country.
Director of F-17 Football Academy Nabil Yusoff told AsiaOne in a phone interview that the team was on its way to Istanbul for a transit flight to Copenhagen when the coup happened.
Flight TK55, which departed at 10pm on July 15, hovered around Turkish airpace for 1.5 hours during the chaos, before a decision was made to land at Antalya instead, he said.
The academy Facebook update today said the team has arrived safely to their hostel in Gothenburg. It’s been a really long journey, since the boys left Singapore over two and a half days ago.