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By Amaechi Agbo

On Saturday, the Super Eagles B team lost the 2022 Africa Nations Championship, CHAN qualifier 5-4 on penalty to Ghana’s Black Galaxies, bestchoicesports.com.ng can report

However, the outcome of the match, despite spirited efforts to overturn their 2-0 deficit and clawed their way back with 2-0 win in the final whistle bringing the aggregate score to 2-2, Coach of the side, Salifu Yusuf failed to show up for the mandatory post match media interaction

Salifu left the media guys who gathered at the Media Centre of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium Abuja for his post match reactions, waiting even after Ghana’s assistant coach attended to the men of the paper and pen profession.

However, less than 24 hours after his unprofessional conduct, the reasons for Coach Yusuf’s action has been revealed with unfair officiating being attributed.

According to Osasu Obayiuwaana, a reporter with BBC Sports, he said, quoting an unnamed source from the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, that Salifu refused to show up to the media briefing because he “was mad”, heartbroken and would not want to say nasty things.

‘I asked a top official of @thenff why the @NGSuperEagles Team ‘B’ CHAN coach, Salisu Yusuf, unprofessionally shunned a post-match press conference, after his team were eliminated by Ghana in a decisive qualifying match. This is what he said.

“He (Yusuf) was heartbroken and didn’t want to speak and say something nasty. We have no reason to lose the match, to be honest. [We] should have won by 5 goals. Ghana had no single shot on target and had only one corner kick in the 76th minute

“We missed 3 open chances & got a penalty [not given] that the referee dragged outside the box to give a free kick. The penalty we missed (in the shootout) was like the @V_Ikpeba (Victor Ikpeba) penalty of the 2000 AFCON – It hit the cross bar & dropped. No one is sure whether it’s in or out.”

“Salisu is mad, because the penalty given to Ghana, in the first leg, for a 1-0 lead, was never a penalty. We had a clear penalty denied us & our player hacked down had to be taken to hospital. He couldn’t play in the second leg. They came & cheated us here (in Abuja) again.”’

The result meant that in five months, Ghana has stopped Nigeria from qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar (March 29) and the 2022 CHAN (September 3) in Algeria which begins in January next year.

The tournament was officially planned to hold this year but the rescheduling of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON to hold in January and February as well as the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, WAFCON in July meant that CAF shifted the tournament meant for players who play in the domestic league to next year.