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By USMAN ALIYU
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has appealed to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) against the annulment of Edo Queens’ disputed WAFU-B title.
The NFF, in a petition contained in a cover letter dated Sept. 28 and signed by its Deputy Secretary-General, Emmanuel Ikpeme, challenged the legality and fairness of the remedy imposed on the Nigerian champions.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that CAF annulled Edo Queens’ 4-1 penalty-shootout victory over Ghanaian champions Ampem Darkoa Ladies after ruling that the Sept. 5 final should have proceeded to 30 minutes of extra time before penalties.
The decision followed a protest by the Ghana Football Association on behalf of Ampem Darkoa.
In its appeal, however, the NFF argued that even if the match officials erred by proceeding directly to penalties, Edo Queens should not bear the sporting consequences of an error they neither caused nor requested.
The federation argued that CAF’s power to establish a regulatory irregularity did not automatically confer unlimited power to impose any remedy.
It therefore asked the CAF Appeals Committee to determine whether the applicable regulations specifically authorised the annulment of a completed penalty shoot-out and the resumption of a final from extra time where neither participating club was responsible for the breach.
The NFF further argued that Edo Queens neither refused to play extra time, demanded penalties nor misrepresented the regulations to the referee.
“Rather, the club complied with the official instruction that the winner be decided from the spot,” the federation argued.
It maintained that Edo Queens neither elected nor requested that extra time be dispensed with, stressing that responsibility for the match procedure rested with the officials and not the players or the club.
The NFF also drew a distinction between benefiting from an official’s error and causing or procuring such an error.
It maintained that the former could not, by itself, make Edo Queens responsible for the latter.
“The fact that Edo Queens ultimately won the shoot-out cannot retrospectively convert its compliance with the referee’s instruction into responsibility for the regulatory breach,” the NFF submitted.
According to the federation, CAF’s ruling itself found that the failure to play extra time resulted from an administrative instruction and that neither Edo Queens nor Ampem Darkoa was responsible.
NAN reports that CAF nevertheless ordered the final to resume from 2-2 at the start of extra time, with a fresh penalty shoot-out if the scores remain level.
The NFF therefore asked the Appeals Committee to distinguish between correcting a regulatory irregularity and transferring the consequences of that irregularity to a participant it described as innocent.
It further argued that any remedy imposed must have a clear regulatory foundation and be proportionate to the breach established. (NAN)
