The Nigeria Football Association (NFA) has fined two-time African Champions League winner Enyimba football club 1 million naira (US$8,474) for arriving late for its third-place match in the country’s FA Cup final at the weekend. Apparently angered by the club’s loss to eventual FA Cup winners Ocean Boys of Port Harcourt in the semi-finals, Enyimba had threatened to boycott the third-place match against Nasarawa United in the northern city of Makurdi. But the threat of a tough sanction from the NFA forced the team to agree to play the match, even though its players and officials came late to the venue on Saturday. “We feel that Enyimba has done something terrible, that they have caused Nigeria football international embarrassment and this is unacceptable,” the local media quoted NFA Spokesman Demola Olajire as saying. “The delay of the Third Place match, which should have started at 14h00, affected the Final Match, which did not start until a few minutes after 16h00 and occasioned a rush of the Awards Presentation Ceremony because of television times,” he said.
