By Nelson Dafe, Benin City on May 17, 2018

Dynamite Force, Nigeria’s first division side, has been among the talking points in connection with the assault on the centre referee during their Edo FA Cup match with Mission Side FC.

The game, which proved to be a tough one for the newly promoted NNL side, was eventually won 3-2 with a late goal deep into injury time after the referee added time on inside injury time for what he adjudged to be excessive time wasting on the part of the Mission Side team.

However, this did not go well with some supporters and players, which resulted in ugly scenes.

There has been some suspicion that the refs were being biased in favour of Dynamite and some were quick to point out the ugly incident of last year involving Dynamite and BJ Foundation in the semi-final of the same competition which ended in violence after Dynamite scored a goal which BJ supporters and players protested against – leading to a fight between both sets of players.

The argument in some quarters is that refs are favoring Dynamite and Insurance who are the two major teams in the state to emerge as state representatives of the FA Cup.

But this argument has been roundly dismissed by some who point to previous occasions when these teams have been beaten in fairly in open play without any ugly incidents.

While condemning the attacks on the center referees in the state, a watcher of the competition noted that decisions of referees, while they may be controversial sometimes, should be respected and that the legal channels to air any grievances must be used.

He notes:

“It is wrong and unfair when some talk about Dynamite being favoured by refs. It’s not true because I can say they have been eliminated several times by lesser clubs in the past and heaven did not fall. Prior to last year, grassroots teams won the last two editions of the FA Cup in 2015 and 2016 in Edo state. So what's this talk about grassroots clubs always being robbed.”

Explaining why the club struggled against Mission Side, a player of Dynamite John Idaho suggested it had to do with fatigue. “Before the match against Mission side we played a League game on Saturday against Osun United which we lost 1-0 and came back the next day (on Sunday) to play the FA cup on Monday. You see how tough the schedule is now we have a League game on Saturday against Remo Stars and we have been training since we got back from the FA cup and you know what that means to train everyday and play matches all the time.... people should not get it wrong about the officiating when you play your game well you get a result. We fought hard till the end and there was nothing controversial about the goal we scored. Time added on was for both teams to play.”

Source Daily Sports

Posted May 17, 2018

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