CAF Champions League CAFCL: Plateau United set to drag Simba SC to CAF after elimination

Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) side, Plateau United wants to drag Tanzanian side Simba SC to CAF for claiming two players tested positive to COVID-19.
 
Plateau United was eliminated from the CAF Champions League on 1-0 aggregate against Simba SC.
 
The NPFL side lost 1-0 at home at the Jos Stadium and played out a 0-0 draw against Simba SC at the Dar Es Salaam Stadium on Saturday.
 
Plateau United on Tuesday released a statement and a short video claiming that Simba SC denied two of their danger men the chance to play the game.
 
The club said that the Tanzanian side claimed that the players COVID-19 result returned positive.
 
Then the club went on to engage the service of a private hospital also in Tanzania and the test returned negative.
 
The short message on the club official Twitter handle reads as follows;
 

“The management of Plateau United is looking to petition CAF to look into the antics of @SimbaSC_EN who kept out two of our danger men from confronting them in Dar Es Salaam by claiming that they were Covid19 positive. 

 
“Well, independent tests were conducted and they are negative.”
 
Plateau United forward Sunday Adetunji who was one of the players that was denied the chance to play confirmed via a tweet that his result returned negative.

 
He wrote; “They claimed I was ‘Positive’. Management engaged a private hospital and my result came back NEGATIVE.
 
“We were positive but we watched the game from the VIP box🤣.
 
“I appreciate my friends, family, and media that reached out to me.
 
“I’m stronger than #COVID19.
 

Sunday Adetunji COVID-19 result conducted at a private hospital returned negative.
Photo: Sunday Adetunji.

 
Plateau United head coach Abdul Maikaba had accepted their elimination and also congratulated Simba SC.
 
 
According to  statement on his Twitter handle, he urged his players to accept finite disappointment.
 
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope
 
“We hold our head high, stick our chest out, it gets dark sometimes but primrose time will come again
 
“My boys really gave a good fight, we say Congratulations to @SimbaSCTanzania.”
 
But it a twist of decision, Maikaba told ChannelsTv that their opponent used antics to win the game.
 
He revealed that they pinpointed Adetunji and Abubakar Ibrahim due to their performance in the first leg.
 

It got to an extent where they tried to stop some of our players entry into their country. 

“They kept wasting our time at the airport and they pinpoint two players, Sunday Adetunji and Abubakar Ibrahim because they performed well in Jos, they didn’t want them to be part of the game, including our goalkeeper,” Maikaba stated.

“When we arrived at our hotel, we met some medical officials who said we have to undergo COVID-19 tests. 

“We got in late, needed to train for an hour which was the time they gave us to use the match venue, yet they were insisting we have the tests.

“We asked that they come back 30 minutes so we train but they refused and informed us they will return in 10 minutes but they didn’t return until 2 hours later. 

“So, we left them and went on with our training.

” They eventually returned, did the tests and held on to it till we concluded our warm-up to the match.”

He further narrated that “Five minutes to kick-off, the match commissioner informed us that five of our players tested positive to COVID-19.

The information shocked us, we knew it was their plan to frustrate and intimidate us. 

“We told them we won’t play the match because the result is coming late.”

“Later, the match commissioner returned with a different list that had two players, Sunday Adetunji, Abubakar Ibrahim who were their main targets.

“Sunday Adetunji and the right-back, Abubakar Ibrahim were part of the starting eleven for the match, we had to replace them three minutes to the commencement of the game,” he added.

The coach noted that Adetunji’s absence was a huge blow to the ambition of his team.

Right now we are at a different hospital, we want to do the test again with all those affected because 24 hours before we left Nigeria, the entire team tested negative to COVID-19. 

“It is a shock to us that some became positive in Tanzania, less than 48 hours. 

“If our verification results come out negative, it means they lied and we will take our case to the Confederation of African Football (CAF).”


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