Nigeria’s representative in the CAF Confederation Cup, Enyimba have been eliminated after Al Ittihad refused to extend their fixture’s date
By Kehinde Okeowo
Enyimba, Nigeria’s representatives in the Confederation Cup have been eliminated from the second tier CAF competition, despite holding a second leg advantage.
The Aba club won the second leg of the two legged affair 2-0 at home last week, after the first leg, which was to be played in Tunisia, the adopted home of their Libyan opponent Al Ittihad, was postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The rescheduled match was to be played in Libya today December 19, but the People’s Elephant pleaded for an extension of the date of the match.
Enyimba appealed to CAF to postpone the encounter so that they can solve their logistic issues, but the football governing body ruled that they can only have a change of date if Al Itihad agreed to the proposition.
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A subsequent letter written to the effect on Friday by Enyimba was met with instant rejection by the Libyan team.
According to Newstap, Enyimba boss, Anyansi Agwu who confirmed the incident described their exit as “Arab conspiracy,” adding that CAF played board politics and favoured Al Itihad.
A statement from Enyimba reads:
“In the spirit of sportsmanship and for the integrity of the competition, the club has elected to accept the decision. However, considering the brevity of time to the fixture, coupled with the current travelling challenges across the continent, it is absolutely impossible for us to arrange a trip to Libya within 48 hours.
“Consequently, we have written to CAF requesting a rescheduling of the date of the fixture to December 31 to enable us sort out our visas, flight bookings, hotel reservations, and other logistics.
“CAF has however advised that for the request to be considered, a written agreement of both clubs must be submitted to the board. Hence, we have written to our hosts, Al Ittihad, hoping to get their cooperation in reaching an agreement for the new date for the fixture,”
The development means no Nigerian club is left in any CAF competition this season, as Akwa United, Rivers United, both in Champions League, and Enyimba FC, Bayelsa United in Confederation Cup, have all failed to progress beyond the playoff stages.
