Just when you think you've seen the ultimate example of soccer fanaticism, along comes the news item about the 289 Gambian fans, who faked a fuel emergency so their plane could land in time for a game in the world youth championship in Peru.
That's right - a match between 16-year-olds was so important to these fans that they took extreme measures to get their plane on the ground.
The Rum Air flight (a clue this was a wild bunch) was headed to Lima, where the fans would have had to go through formal immigration proceedings before heading to the Under-17 match between Gambia and Qatar.
Pressed for time with kickoff two hours away, the chartered flight made an unauthorized detour and faked a fuel emergency to land in the northern city of Piura. Waiting on the ground at the tiny airport were firefighters and police, who had raced to the rescue. Area hospitals were put on red alert.
Local authorities were not amused to learn of the hoax.
``They faked an emergency to land in Piura. They were coming from Brazil, and they should have landed in Lima first,'' Ramon Caminate, a tournament organizer in Piura, told Reuters.
CORPAC, the organization that runs Peru's airports, said the airline could face penalties.
The good news? Gambia won the game 3-1 and advanced to the quarterfinals.
The fans took over five small hotels in Piura while the plane was impounded at the airport.
