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…Enyimba Threaten To Boycott Matches, Pull Out Of The League

By Amaechi Agbo

The Nigria Football Federation, NFF has deducted two points from Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL champions, Enyimba FC of Aba, even as the People’s Elephant threaten to boycott their remaining matches and also pull out of the league

The two points deduction followed a complaint launched by Doma United against Enyimba following their March 10 NPFL encounter which Enyimba was controversially awarded a 1-0 victory.

Following Doma United’s appeal, the NFF Disciplinary Committee in a decision on April 29, 2024 held that the match should be adjudged to have ended 0-0 and not 1-0 in favour of the host, Enyimba FC after the game had restarted before the referee checked the Outside Broadcasting Van monitor to award Enyimba the goal.

Below are the Disciplinary Committee’s findings and decisions

FINDINGS:

1. That the match was played for about 88 Minutes of the Match before it was disrupted.
2. That the cause of the disruption of the match was as a result the 88th minute goal scored by Enyimba FC which was initially admitted to be a goal. Thereafter, the Referee consulted with the Assistant Referee 1 (AR1) who raised his flag for an offside positioning. The Referee agreed that the goal was scored from an offside position.
3. That based on Paragraph 2 above, the Referee ordered for a restart of the game with an indirect free kick which was taken by a Doma United FC Player (GK).
4. That after the restart of play, the ball kicked by Doma United FC Player (GK) was held by Enyimba FC., while an official and reserved players of Enyimba FC ran into the field of play to accost the Referee.
5. That fans of the home team rushed into the field of play and dragged the Referee to an Outside Broadcasting Van (OB van) owned by Startimes, stationed outside the field of play in order to review the goal scoring action.
6. That the Referee was further dragged back to the field of play by multitude of hoodlums who forced the Referee to rescind his last decision (offside).
7. That the Referee testified before the Committee and admitted that the goal was scored from offside position, but had to change his decision after visiting the OB Van for fear of being lynched as he was at all times surrounded by the officials of Enyimba FC and hoodlums.
8. That the Referee further admitted that his action of going outside the pitch of play and thereafter changing his decision was wrong according to the laws and the spirit of the game.

9 That the Referee stated that he was forced to write and send his report in the dressing room while being surrounded by the home team officials which was why he made an unelaborate report. Consequently, he presented additional report to the Committee which was admitted in evidence.

10. That it was found out that the Match Commissioner lost control of proceedings from the 88th minute through his oral testimony via WhatsApp Video call. He could not give accurate account of what transpired and averred that he did not witness most of the occurrences as he was busy rallying round the security operatives whom he confirmed to the Committee were ineffective. He also admitted that most of what he reported was hearsay evidence as he was informed. He made series of contradictions between his oral testimony and his written report

DECISION:

Based on the above findings, the Committee decides as follows:

1. That the Referee erred to have changed a decision after a game had been restarted in contravention of the provisions of Law 5, FIFA/IFAB Laws of the game.
2. That the Referee equally erred by leaving the pitch to go and view the replay of the relevant part of the match proceeding in the Outside Broadcasting Van (OB Van) in order to review his earlier decision. This is a practice unknown to FIFA, CAF, NFF and NPFL.
3. That the result of the match at the point of the restart of the game after over ruling the goal scored as offside is hereby upheld at (0-0).
4. That the decision of the NPFL based on Rule B.13.55.2 of the NPFL Framework and Rules declaring the match conclusive is hereby upheld.
5. The Committee equally upheld the NPFL decisions as provided under paragraphs a, b and c as contained in Form 16 (Summary Jurisdiction Notice) of 14th March, 2024.
6. The Match Commissioner is hereby reprimanded for not being totally alive to his responsibility.
7. That the above decisions are without prejudice to the right of appeal.

Enyimba Threaten To Boycott matches, pull Out Of league

The Management of NPFL champions, Enyimba FC of Aba has accused the NFF of being biased in docking the team two points in the match played against Doma United

The NFF Disciplinary Committee ruled that Enyimba be docked off the two points and the result remains as it was before the incident that led to the referee going to watch the replay from a Startimes OB van at the stadium.

Enyimba in its reaction, accused the NPFL board of trying to manipulate Enyimba results to favour some teams for continental slots.

They said Enyimba will have no option than to boycott the league and withdraw their membership of the NPFL.

“We’ve never had it this bad before in this league.

” Overall, the NPFL’s decision against Enyimba is detrimental to the league’s reputation, competitiveness, and potential for growth. It undermines the trust and confidence that stakeholders have in the league administration and raises concern about the fairness and integrity of the competition”.

“The NPFL’s decision against Enyimba is very bad for the league as charcoal turning into sugar”.

They pointed out Lack of consistency, disruption to the League, negative impact on Enyimba’s reputation, discouragement for clubs and fans, Impact on league sponsorship and TV rights, as some of the negative impacts the decision will have on the league.

Enyimba further pointed out that in their match against Katsina United, on the 17th of January 2024, the club was robbed by the match officials starting with the AR1 who is from Benue State when Andrew Idoko who’s ball didn’t even reach the goal line was declared as a goal by the said AR2. Enyimba never protested or fought the match officials for that ungodly football ruling.

“In the game between Enyimba and Sunshine Stars in Akure, a goal was awarded to the home side which never crossed the line just as in Kastina and yet The People’s Elephants didn’t complain to anybody about the official or what happened in the game”.

” In the loss against Kano Pillars, Enyimba were denied a clean penalty in the game and the club moved on without complaining about it and the outcome yet NPFL board did nothing about it. In Uyo against Akwa United, Enyimba were denied three clean penalties by the officials of the game and NPFL board did nothing about it as they support everything against Enyimba just to help any individual or state governments who pays them for results to satisfy their people”.

Enyimba went further to ask the centre referee of that match Nura Abdullahi who said he wrote his match report under duress and he knew those who force him to do that to mention them.