NAIROBI: The Somali Football Federation (TFF) on Friday criticised FIFA and the organisers of the 2010 World Cup trophy tour of skipping the country in its journey through Africa.

Somalia, which has been locked in a bloody civil war since 1991, is the only African nation not to host the trophy that left Zurich in September on a five-month tour to South Africa where the World Cup finals will be held in 2010.

But the TFF said it was hypocritical for FIFA and the tour organisers to omit Mogadishu and yet the trophy is meant to celebrate the continent for staging the first world cup finals. "I don't know why they have marginalised Somalia," Ahmed Nur Abdule, the TFF vice-president said in Nairobi, where the coveted golden trophy arrived on a three-day stopover on Thursday.

"We are part of the FIFA family but we feel feel let down. We believe the trophy would have been safely flown into Mogadishu and be presented to our president under the guard of the African Union (ANISOM) troops stationed in the capital," Abdule said. "The people of Somalia have been traumatised from the long civil war and taking the trophy to Mogadishu would have made a difference. The larger population is longing for peace," he added. The 18-carat trophy leaves Nairobi on Saturday headed for Uganda.