Enyimba Denies NPFL's Match Abandonment Allegations

Following the decision of the organisers of the Nigeria Professional Football League NPFL, to hand N10m fine against Enyimba over the outcome of the inconclusive MatchDay 35 Oriental derby, the management of the Aba giants has denied abandoning the encounter in Enugu.

Reacting to the fines, Sporting Director of the People's Elephant', Ifeanyi Ekwueme made the denial in a chart with the media.

According to him, the claims and insinuation that the League defending Champions  'walked out' of the pitch during Derby' is untrue.

The explosive Oriental derby which attracted a huge crowd turned ugly deep into the added time after the Referee awarded what the Enyimba management termed a dubious penalty.

Amidst suggestion that the Flying Antelopes front man was in an offside position before he was pulled off striking position, spectators surged onto the turf, leading to the game being overshadowed by ugly scenes.

The Sporting Director maintained that the nine-time NPFL winners did not stage any walk out during the beautiful game that was made ugly.

In trying to give a graphic illustration of what really transpired Sunday night inside The Cathedral, he said that Enyimba is a through professional side and have never and can never be cajoled into walking out during a match.

"Before the incident, I had severally, up to five or six times, walked up to the Match Commissioner  as well as the Rangers FC GM, Amaobi on the over crowded arena and the surging spectators that should anything happen, the situation would be difficult to control.

"Eventually when the bubble bust, our players came to the side line to receive technical instructions from their coach. I came around and having received signal from our Chairman, Nwankwo Papilo Kanu, I asked the players to go back to the pitch but just as the goalkeeper went to collect his towel in his goalpost he was met by Rangers 'fans' who were throwing objects at him and before you knew it, Rangers Supporters began to clash with Enyimba fans which forced our fans to run for safety inside the pitch".

"That was what really happened and its wrong of anyone to suggest or accuse our players of 'walking out' of the field thereby 'abandoning' the game and the videos are very evident enough.

The Nigerian Professional Football League Organisers on Monday handed the defending champions a N10m sanction  and awarded the match three points and three goals to Rangers.

They equally handed out a N5m sanction on Rangers for 'over ticketing', 'inadequate security', 'not implementing crowd control measures', and 'allowing unauthorised bodies to access restricted areas'.