By Ijesa United FC Media Office
Matchday 2 of the NLO 2 between Ojaja II FC and Ijesa United FC was abandoned as controversies trail various decisions of the centre referee.
The first call was in the 2nd minute of the first half when a glaring offside was ignored by the centre referee despite the call from the assistant referee.
Several other controversial decisions were made by the CR which later led to the halt of the first half around the 30th minute before normalcy was returned after the intervention of stakeholders and the match resumed.
To the utmost surprise of all, despite the pause in the first half, the half spanned exactly 45mins.
The second half soon kicked off after the normal rest and everything went well until the normal forty-five minutes span of the half elapsed and without any notification from the CR or any other official, the half went on till around 51mins when the head coach of Ijesa United FC went to the match commissioner to give him a heads-up as regards the time-frame before he could get to the bench, the CR had pointed to the spot in a controversial decision which later led to the abandonment of the match.
Several questions were raised, like; why will the game be that long without any infringement in anyone to warrant the additional “huge minutes”; why decide on a PK without the consent of the AR who sees everything going on in the Box, among others.
Ojaja FC head coach advised both teams to leave the field citing insecurity reasons even when the officials of ijesha United had agreed that the PK be taken and the game should continue, while the referee also refused to go back to the field to continue the game after the whole issue has been resolved.
Almost immediately the match was announced abandoned by the officials, Ijesa United FC technical crew put into writing the report of the match and sent it to the officials supervising the league at the centre.
It was observed that Ojaja FC is enjoying the privilege of being the club from the osun State FA chairman’s town, ile ife. And there is apparent complicity on the part of The State FA representatives, match officials and the centre Coordinator to favour ojaja FC to the detriment of other teams.
Every other match at the centre always ends peacefully accept any match involving ojaja II FC.
Meanwhile, it was a shocker to hear that news filtered to town that Ijesa United FC has been sanctioned to pay one hundred thousand, and as well be responsible for 3 points and 3 goals deficit to Ojaja II FC.
The management of Ijesa United FC is calling on all stakeholders involved in grassroots football to prevail on the league body to induct a thorough investigation into the matter, as this may hamper the growth of the game and will not achieve the necessary result.
