CAF Fumbles Again, Annuls Edo Queens Well Deserved WAFU B Victory

By Harrison Jalla

The confederation of African Football is again caught in another administrative crisis less than a year after the last Nations cup in Morocco when it overturned Senegal’s victory over Morocco.

Same scenario is playing out again in the just concluded WAFU B women’s tournament of the female African champions league hosted by Burkina Faso.

Edo Queens played the WAFU B version finals against Ampem Darkoa ladies FC of Ghana.

Arising from a petition filed by the Ghana Football Association within 48 hours of the WAFU B final. CAF has
upheld the Ghana Football Association protest on its merit as the direct resort to penalty kicks after regular time constituted a breach of Articles 13.1 and 72.4 of the CAF women’s champions league regulations.

The rule clearly states there would be 15mins half each way before penalty kicks but match officials and organisers proceeded to penalty kicks which Edo queens won by 4-1.

What is the 54 member federations that makes up CAF learning from CAF in terms of organization of championships? It’s been one blunder to another while holding national teams and football clubs in Africa responsible for CAF failures?

Who authorized match officials to proceed to penalty kicks? Are the match officials not conversant with the rules? CAF must allow football games to be won and lost on the field of play and invoke disciplinary measures against it’s staff and committee members and stop subjecting the continent to constant embarrassment.

CAF would need to wake up and reorganize itself. Edo queens have no reason to honour a replay the NFF must make that clear to CAF.

Harrison Jalla
Chairman
Advocacy for Nigeria Football Reform Initiative