By Tony Adibe
About 50,000 football fans were said to have attended the much-anticipated game in the Nigeria Professional Football League between Enugu Rangers International and Enyimba Football Club of Aba as the match ended suddenly with angry fans disrupting it.
Had the match not ended like that, and the game allowed to continue, the police wouldn’t be able to control the intimidating crowd that doubled the official 25,000 capacity of the stadium, NewsBits learnt. It was gathered that trouble began in the last minute of the game when a player of Enyimba brought down a player of Rangers FC and the referee awarded a penalty kick. Angry fans of Enyimba reportedly rushed the linesmen in protest, insisting there was no infringement, and the penalty must be cancelled, thereby causing tension.
NewsBits learnt that after about 15 minutes of restoring normalcy, the referee, however, directed that the penalty kick be taken, a decision that provoked the Enyimba who flooded the field to disrupt the game. The action of Enyimba fans reportedly triggered Rangers fans who also trooped into the pitch, forcing Aba fans out of the pitch while the Enyimba players were said to have left the field in protest, thereby bringing the game to a sudden goalless end.
Rangers currently top the league with 62 points while Enyimba trails with 60 points, which made today’s game very competitive as it would have decided the potential winner of the league.
“The organizers of the match probably didn’t envisage that kind of huge crowd. They allowed the game to end like that because assuming there was an eruption of violence, the security people wouldn’t be able to handle it,” a sports journalist told NewsBits.
