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By Timothy Nwobodo

The final match of the Enugu State 2024 FA Cup between Rangers International and Coal City FC which was inconclusive, have at last produced a winner as the Enugu State Football Association (FA) declared Coal City Champions.

The declaration came in the wake of the abrupt ending of the final match on March 30, 2024 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium as Rangers International refused to go into penalty shootouts after playing a one-all draw in full-time.

This made the game to end in an unceremonious manner leaving the FA with a big decision to make.

However, to the surprise of many, the FA made a decision against a replay and triggered the rule of the competition which states that “in a situation where a team stages a walkout, the other team should be declared the winner after 48 hours.

Speaking to the media after the FA presented the cup to the winners on Saturday at the UNEC Stadium, coach of Coal City FC Ani Star lauded;the FA for their bold step

“We told the FA to do the right thing, we’re happy they did and we are very happy that we are the champions. The rule is; immediately after the game you go straight to penalties, rangers didn’t want to play penalties, definitely the victory was given to Coal City United.”

He expressed their readiness to take the next step of competing at the highest level having been playing in the lower division of Nigerian National League (NNL).

The presentation was done shortly before the kick-off of the NNL match between Coal City FC and Abia Comets. Coal City won the match 2-1.

Best Choice Sports gathered reliably, that the decision to hand the trophy to Coal City FC was taken by the Nigeria Football Federation after it reviewed the report of the match by the Match Commissioner and officials. It remains to be seen what decision the NFF will take against Rangers.

It could be recalled that Rangers adopted such similar attitude during the 2022 FA Cup final against Adoration FC. The match ended inclusively without a winner emerging thereafter