Enyimba FC chairman, Felix Anyasi-Agwu, says the Confederation of African Football shouldn’t have allowed continental matches to be played in Algeria and Libya, who are yet to resume normal activities following the global lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The two-time CAF Champions League winners endured a torrid time after their CAF Confederation Cup fixture in Algiers against ES Setif, with the Nigerians left stranded for two days due to their inability to secure flights back to the country on time.
They suffered same fate while preparing for their Group A match-day five fixture against Libya’s Al Ahly Benghazi, and almost forfeited the match due to their inability to secure flights to the North African nation with ease.
“I know there’s a pandemic and everybody will use that as an excuse, but the issue is that a country that is not completely open should not be given such room whereby every other team must come with a special flight to be able to access the country. It doesn’t give room for fair play, which is what we’re going through,” Anyasi-Agwu told newsmen
“For example, what if a club cannot afford such an arrangement? We are a government team but it doesn’t mean that we can afford everything.
“When the teams from Libya and Algeria came to Nigeria, they came on chartered flights, these teams are coming from a country that’s not completely open. They all know they can’t go through what we went through, no team should experience what we went through.
“CAF shouldn’t have allowed them play in their countries for now, they shouldn’t have been in a hurry to return them,” Anyasi-Agwu added.
The match, which was earlier scheduled for Wednesday at the Martyrs of February Stadium, has been moved forward by 24 hours and would be played Thursday.
However, Enyimba’s final group game against South Africa’s Orlando Pirates might be played outside Nigeria as the club are yet to get a reply from the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on whether the game could hold on their traditional home ground in Aba.
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Enyimba are currently second in the group on six points, two points behind leaders, Orlando Pirates. Setif and Al Ahly Benghazi are third and fourth respectively and are both on four points.
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