The Enugu State FA on Saturday confirmed NNL side Coal City United FC champions of the state’s Federation Cup, after Enugu Rangers allegedly refused to play penalties after the final game ended 1-1 in 90 minutes.
The match, which held at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu was scheduled to go into penalties by officials of the competition but Rangers were said to have rejected the option after regulation time.
While presenting the giant trophy to Coal City United, the state’s Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Lloyd Ekweremadu, described the winners as worthy champions.
“I will first apologise for not being able to attend all your (Coal City) matches, but after watching what you played against Rangers, you guys are deservedly true champions of the state Federation Cup,” he said.
“As a government, we will give you all the support you need to excel at the national level when hostilities begin.”
Explaining the decision to present the trophy to the NNL side, Enugu FA chairman Tony Ugwu stated that the association acted based on the report from the match officials
Ugwu added that the match officials reported that the final game, which was played on March 30, was concluded.
According to him, the report confirmed that one of the teams (Rangers) refused to proceed to the ensuing penalty shootout.”
“That’s exactly what we did, and I’m sure the management of Rangers are aware of the report from the match officials. So, what the FA did was to act on the report of the match commissioner and that’s why we made the presentation today (Saturday),” Ugwu said.
“The rule says there must be a reason before a match is declared inconclusive, but the match commissioner gave us a report that the match was concluded, but one team just refused to continue, and when one team refuses to continue, all we need to do is act on the match officials report.”
Both Coal City and Rangers will represent Enugu in this year’s Federation Cup.
