Nigeria Professional Football League side, Plateau United, have given an indication they would be lodging a protest against Simba SC for the alleged antics they deployed to progress in the CAF Champions League at their expense.
Plateau United on their official Twitter handle said they are planning to report the Tanzanian club to the continent’s football ruling body for falsely claiming two of their key players tested positive for COVID-19 and were thus not allowed to play in Saturday’s second leg tie.
The club while posting a negative result of one of the players alleged the false-positive results was only meant to weaken the team and give Simba SC an undue advantage.
“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 wrote on their club handle.
Newsmen learnt Sunday Adetunji and Jesse Akila were the two players claimed to have tested positive, but the former has vehemently denied the claim. The club said Adetunji watched Saturday’s game in the VIP box thus making a mockery of his supposed positive status.
Adetunji on his Twitter handle 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.”
Plateau United will have themselves to blame the more having been beaten at home by the East African team before putting up a stout defensive display to earn a barren draw.
The club also posted a video of how they protested against the phantom COVID-19 results believed to have been altered to give Simba SC the edge.
At the moment, Nigeria’s sole representative in the Champions League is Enyimba who were able to get past Burkinabe club Rahimo over two legs.