The proverbial saying that when two elephants fight, the grass suffers, came into play on Monday at various centres of the on going LMC/LALIGA U.15 Football Tournament.

The tournament is taking place in four different centres of Enugu, Benin, Abuja and Kaduna. The first stanza is expected to run from 8-12 April.

However, the kick off of the tournament on Monday was marred by power play between the LMC Chairman, Sheu Dikko and NRA President Tade Azeez. Bestchoicesorts.com.ng gathered that the NRA President had called out his referees in all the four centres not to have anything to do with the tournament, which its preparation started over six months, insisting that the LMC must communicate to him first in written before the referees would be allowed to officiate the matches. The LMC leadership on its part had insisted that they have written to the NFF sometime in January, intimating them of the calendar of the program, and the NFF inturn is supposed to inform the NRA.

The LMC Chairman, on that premise refused to enter into any further discussions with the NRA which made the President of NRA to order his men to boycott the tournament.

Teams in Kaduna center had started their matches, when the referees were called out of the pitch, leaving the young players on the pitch for over two hours. In Abuja, matches were put on hold until the issues were resolved. In Benin, the Coordinator of the Centre organized make shift referees to begin the matches. At the Enugu Centre, Coaches of the participating teams, had to organize themselves to kick start the tournament, after having waited for over three hours on the pitch.

However, normalcy returned to the centres after the General Secretary of NFF, Sanusi Mohammed was said to have put a call across to the President of NRA, Tade Azeez.