The Confederation of African Football has
officially kicked Dolphin out of the Confederation Cup after the club
protested a walkover decision against them in their match against Club
Africain of Tunisia on Saturday.
The Nigerian representatives arrived late
for the encounter, claiming force majeure and accusing their hosts of
conspiracy to ensure their lateness at the match venue – Rades Stadium.
They petitioned CAF through the Nigeria Football Federation and
requested a reschedule for the game.
But CAF Inter-clubs Organising Committee
said on Thursday dismissed their protest after going through the details
and noted that the NFF could be fined $2,000 for non-observance of the
CAF rules.
The CAF statement read, ”Dolphins did not
show up at Rades Stadium (Tunisia) on March 14 at 3pm local time for
the kick-off of the match against Club Africain of Tunisia, for the
1/16th round first leg of the Confederation Cup. The referee
acknowledged forfeiture of Dolphins.
“The Committee noted that the Nigeria
Football Federation did not observe article 10.2 of Chapter IX of the
rules of the competition, which obliges the federation of the visiting
team to inform the federation of the host team and CAF of the date of
arrival in the capital of the host country at least two weeks prior to
the date scheduled for the match. The non-observance of this disposition
attracts a fine of $2000.
“As it stands, the club only informed CAF
on March 13 of the fact that it missed its flight between Port-Harcourt
and Lagos, and could only arrive in Tunis on the day of the match
without requesting for a postponement of the encounter. Even though the
request was not made, CAF proposed to the Tunisian team to delay the
kick-off of the match by 30 minutes for the sake of fair-play.
“In view of the above, the Committee did
not consider that we were facing a case of force majeure and went on to
apply Article 17 of Chapter XI of the regulations, which states: ‘If for
any reason whatsoever, a team withdraws from the competition or does
not report for a match – except in case of force majeure accepted by the
Organizing Committee – or if it refuses to play or leaves the ground
before the regular end of the match without the permission of the
referee, it shall be considered loser and shall be eliminated from the
competition.’
“Dolphins are thus eliminated without prejudice to other financial sanctions that could be taken by the Committee.”
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