Nigeria’s last CAF Confederations Cup representative, Heartland FC of Owerri is protesting its ouster from the continental club competition after it was walked over by Gabonese side US Bitam on Saturday.
Heartland missed its 5pm kickoff time on Saturday after leaving the
shores of Nigeria
for the away game in Bitam just a few hours earlier. The club’s predicament was
due to lack of funds to hasten up the team’s travel plans.
Heartland, we gathered has filed
a protest with CAF that the hosts did not honour the fact that the Nigerian
team was in country as at the time the walkover was done and that it had a
window of Sunday to play the match at the weekend.
Heartland officials are confident
that the Owerri club has a strong enough argument to get CAF to rule in the
team’s favour, particularly order that the match be replayed.
Meanwhile, dejected players of
the club landed in two batches at the Murtala
Muhammed International
Airport in Lagos
on Sunday. The team then proceeded to its homeground in Owerri ahead of its Nigeria
Professional Football League tie during the week.
Daily Independent also gathered
that the team is also smarting from the manner it was treated by hosts Gabon
after the contingent was abandoned at the Gabon
Airport for about four hours on
arrival.
No comments:
Post a Comment