Nigeria champions Enyimba have described the sudden rescheduling of a CAF Champions tie at Zamalek as “highly unfair”, maintaining they do not enough players to play the match on Saturday.
Enyimba departed Nigeria on Thursday afternoon with the knowledge that their make or break tie against the Egyptians is on Sunday, August 14, 2016 but shortly after arrival in Cairo, a letter from CAF was received by the club, stating that due to security concerns the match had been brought forward to Saturday.
“This is highly unfair. I don’t know how the fixture of a game as important as this can be brought forward without any consultation with the visiting team. It's against the rules," blasted Enyimba chairman Felix Anyansi-Agwu.
“We have made all our plans based on the knowledge that we are playing on Sunday, so we don’t know how we can suddenly be told to play on Saturday.
“What if we had arrived Egypt on Friday? Would we have been forced to still play on Saturday? This is not fair at all for us and for the entire Nigeria. Any change should have been discussed with us so all parties can work out what is in the best interest of everyone. Right now, this doesn’t suit us at all.
“Moreover, we travelled with a limited number of players. Our intention was to have the rest of our squad join us from Spain on Saturday, where they are on national assignment. They would be arriving Cairo at 5 pm on Saturday, so how would the match be played?
“We do not have the requisite number of players for a match on Saturday, so we are appealing to CAF to move the game to Monday, August 15, if it cannot be played on Sunday due to security concerns, it’s the only way we can play.”
“We will also be appealing to the Egyptian FA and Zamalek to assist us in changing our booking reservations with Egypt Air from Monday to Tuesday. This change will cause us difficulties and we are appealing to CAF, the Egyptian FA and Zamalek SC to make things easy for us, because we have no hand in the adjustment of the fixture.”
Enyimba have no point in their group after two games and will be hoping to win in Cairo to keep alive their dreams of a third continental crown.
Zamalek meanwhile are second on the table with three points behind already qualified Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa.
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