Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has slammed Gambian football authorities after he and his Gabon teammates were held at Banjul International airport for six hours.

The Arsenal striker is currently on international duty with his nation and helped them record a 2-1 home victory over Gambia on Thursday by scoring the winning goal.

On Monday they are set to play the reverse fixture in the West African country, but were held up at Gambia’s Banjul International Airport as the team had their passports seized by staff.

Some players were pictured sprawled across the floor asleep, while a number of them took to social media to air their grievances.

After being stopped at 11pm local time they were eventually released just before 6am in the morning, and Aubameyang took to Twitter to express his disgust at their treatment.

He tagged the official account of the Confederation of African Football and wrote: “What a great night at the airport.”

He then added: “Just want to know why Gambia keep our passports for hours and they keep us at the airport. Are we hostage of what? Are you gonna close your eyes? Want to see the next episode of this film.”

He later took a picture of the team on board the team bus, along with the caption: “Finally in the bus. See you later. Thanks for the extra motivation Gambia,” appearing to suggest the hold-up was a tactic by their opponents to try to tire them out ahead of the big match.

And replying to a supporter who suggested the same, Aubameyang said: “It will not demotivate us but people need to know and especially that the @CAF_Online take these responsibilities.

“2020 and we want Africa to grow, that’s not how we’re going to get there!!!”

Gabon are currently top of their qualification group having won two and drawn one of their games so far, but Gambia are just three points behind them in second place.

(Mirror Sports)