BEVERLY HILLS, April 20, (THEWILL) – Ahead of Wednesday’s second leg fixture of their Confederation of African Football (CAF) Confederation Cup Group A tie against Al-Ahly Benghazi of Libya, Nigeria’s Enyimba FC of Aba, the fifth-placed side of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), were on the brink of a walk-over loss as they had become unable to secure a flight to Libya for the match.
The consequences of missing the fixture were dire as the Match Day Five game carried the implication of awarding three points to the Libyan side, which would take Al-Ahly Benghazi up to second and drop the People’s Elephant of Aba out of the qualification slots.
That would be an unfortunate set of circumstances for the Nigerian representative that previously led the Group after Match Day Three.
The absence of a direct flight from Nigeria to Libya due to COVID-19 enforced travel restrictions placed obstacles in the path of the team’s attempt to make travel plans for the game at the Hugo Chavez Football Stadium of Al-Ahly. The available option was a round-trip that involved a commercial flight to Spain and then, a connected trip to Libya, which, based on flight times and schedules, put their ability to meet the time for the game in jeopardy.
Seeing this outcome, the club management officially requested that CAF allow for the match to be played on Friday so that their travel itinerary could be sorted out well ahead of the match for the team to be in good shape to honour their obligations and prosecute the tie optimally. That request was turned down by CAF and the team was left with little options to explore in making the fixture.
Then, a coalition of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development and the Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu stepped in to provide a solution for Enyimba to make it to the tie.
They are now due to travel to Libya on a chartered flight provided for the team by the Governor.
Fatai Amoo’s team will now be motivated to demonstrate the fighting spirit of the People’s Elephant and hand their Libyan opponents a second-leg defeat to build on their 2-1 victory in the home tie last month where two first half goals from Austin Oladapo and Victor Mbaoma sandwiched a penalty goal from Al-Ahly’s Abdallah Imhamed to give the Aba team the win.
Enyimba sits in second place going into Match Day Five games, having taken six points from their first four games. Al-Ahly is closely behind with four points and will be desperate for a home victory to improve their chances of qualifying from the group stages.
A win for Enyimba will take them clear of qualification especially if Group A leaders Orlando Pirates beat the team at the bottom of the group, ES Serif of Algeria, in the other group tie.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
