London, June 25 (ANI): Four members of Libya's national football team and 13 other leading figures in the sport, have defected to the rebels' side, who are battling to oust the country's leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The group includes the Libyan national side's goalkeeper Juma Gtat and the coach of Tripoli's top club al-Ahly, Adel bin Issa, the Telegraph reports.
Gtat and bin Issa announced the group's defection during a meeting in the rebel-held Nafusa Mountains in western Libya.
"I am telling Colonel Gaddafi to leave us alone and allow us to create a free Libya," said Gtat.
"In fact I wish he would leave this life altogether," he added.
Bin Issa said that he had chosen to come to the Western Mountains "to send a message that Libya should be unified and free".
"I hope to wake up one morning to find that Gaddafi is no longer there," he added.
In North Africa, where football is hugely popular, the defections are a major propaganda coup for the rebels and a blow for Gaddafi, the paper said. (ANI)
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