Cases where a referee’s controversial call halts a team’s progress in a competition always comes painful for those at the receiving end of the call. There have been so many cases of this and this isn’t a new thing, thanks to VAR, there has been a reduction of these kinds of calls.
Last season’s(2021/22) runners up of the Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL, Plateau United were victims of a controversial refereeing decision on Saturday when they faced Esperance of Tunisia in the CAF Champions League.
The Egyptian referee in charge of the tie, Ibrahim Nourendinne awarded a penalty that was obviously a foul outside of the box.
The Penalty scored eventually saw Plateau United’s progress into the CAF Champions League group stages suffer a dent.
Plateau United dropped to the CAF Confederation Cup final qualifying round before the group stage.
The draws for the rounds saw them up against Al Akhder of Libya. And both legs will be played on 2nd November and 9th November respectively.
The coach of the side, Fidelis Ilechukwu in this interview with Elegbetetv.com spoke on the lessons learnt from the Champions League, how proud he was of his boys and what his boys have to do ahead of the Confederation Cup game.
Speaking of how the loss hurt them, how broken the team were and how they have to move on, he said:
” I know we lost based on controversy, and we’d take it as one of those mistakes that happens in football, that has gone and it’s important we move on.”
” We tried our best, especially having few new players in a team that hasn’t really played together before the start of the competition. Our two central defenders are new, but their understanding was top, they made themselves proud. I know Nigerians were disappointed we couldn’t make it into the group, but it’s one of those things which we can’t do anything about.”
On lessons learnt,he said:
” We have learnt a lot from the CAF CL, especially the game against Esperance.
Most lessons fall in our game at home, we could have scored up to 5 goals, it could have ended 5-1,we wasted so many chances in our first leg game, but it’s football and we lost them and it eventually cost us, that was a big lesson to us and I don’t think we would make such mistake again “
Fidelis was proud of his team spirit and the resilience they showed.
” The little we’ve done is a product of hardwork and also discipline, my boys have worked hard so much and another big challenge is the fact that we’re playing away literally, playing in Abuja is away for us, and looking at these situations, you’ll agree with me that the boys have done so well and kudos must be given to them. “
” If it had been played in Jos, the ground we’re so used to there wasn’t a way Esperance would have escaped, but still we wouldn’t want it to get into their head because we want to force them mentally to get into the CAF CC group stages. “
” I’m so proud of their efforts, after we went past As Mandji, and drew against Esperance, many people weren’t so confident in us, and looking at the structure of Esperance, nobody gave us the chance that we would have done what we did. “
” The pressure faced in Tunisia, the boys held up well on the pressure, in my heart, they’re champions and I told them they had done more than expected, and some of the Esperance fans clapped for us, and gave us kudos. “
” So, I’m so proud of them, and the preparation for the Confederation Cup must now begin, our heads are high, and we have hopes something positive will happen.”
I hope coach Fidelis now understand the politics of the game ….. Cos i don’t want to we were cheated again ooo. Football is not only played on the pitch but also in the mind and in the hearts of the public.