The Jordanian FA will be asking FIFA to explain why no one from Football Federation Australia "was available to help them sort out arrival issues at Melbourne Airport on Wednesday," according to Greg Stutchbury of REUTERS. Coach Adnan Hamad "was detained at Melbourne Airport by immigration authorities for more than four hours" when the team arrived from New Zealand to prepare for its World Cup qualifier with the Socceroos on Tuesday. JFA General Secretary Khalil Al Salem said that the team "needed intervention from the Jordanian embassy to help with the coach's entry into Australia." JFA said that both countries "had signed an agreement before World Cup qualifiers to appoint a local representative to meet visiting teams at the airport to help with any such logistical delays" (REUTERS, 6/5).
WAITING FOR A RIDE: In Sydney, Michael Lynch reported FFA officials "are bemused by claims" from Jordan that no Australian representatives were there to meet them at the Melbourne airport. FFA sources said that "far from ignoring the plight of the Iraqi-born coach, they secured the intervention of Sports Minister Kate Lundy to expedite his immigration clearance." One insider said that the organization's staffers "were in the arrivals area waiting for the team and officials to clear customs and were not allowed into the customs area." Security and buses "were waiting for the Jordanians to take them to their hotel" (THE AGE, 6/6).
