A beautiful game made ugly … that is the story out of The Cathedral in Enugu (Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium).
The fans came into the stadium in their thousands, making the arena full to capacity. Excitement filled the air, with everyone gathered to witness what they believed would be a beautiful game in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).
A lot of people have repeatedly spoken about seeing Nigerian football return to its old image of the golden days, when we saw huge crowds at the nation’s iconic stadia.
The return of Nigeria’s days of glory appeared to have come on Sunday, June 9, 2024; with many spectators already seated in the stands long before the match was scheduled to kick off.
When the game eventually began, we saw good football from both teams … the hosts, Rangers International of Enugu and visitors, Enyimba of Aba.
Everyone was enjoying the best of football, until eight minutes of additional time to the full 90, and the game still at zero-zero. Suddenly, a penalty was awarded to Rangers, and all hell broke loose!
The visitors complained, remonstrated and gathered around the referee, ostensibly arguing that the penalty had been ‘manufactured’ by the centre man; while also alleging that he added so much time in order to ‘help’ the hosts score and win at all cost.
Such heated reactions were unexpected from the players of a club that has won the CAF Champions League twice and clinched the NPFL title on several occasions; but things soon got completely out of hand when their fans added petrol to the inferno.
They forced play to stop by throwing objects into the field and prevented the ref from continuing with the game.
Security personnel did all they could to stop the chaos and tried persuading the crowd to allow the game to be concluded.
They did get an initial moment of calm but, when it looked like the story about the return of beautiful things to Nigerian football would continue and end well, the fans found their way unto the field of play.
They destroyed the pitch panels, picked the broken wood, then started chasing the referee and players off the field. It was so scary, alarming, and pathetic that the security personnel eventually had to disperse the unruly fans with tear gas.
What would have gone into the history of Nigerian football as a day of revival for the round leather game ended as a fiasco for the NPFL’s resurgent image.
It initially looked so promising, with the fans trooping out in their thousands on Ogui Road and beyond; even paying high fees at the gates. Entry for the VIP stand was N2,000 … yet some fans were begging and offering more in order to gain entry into the arena. Sadly, it all ended in chaos!
How do we describe the anti-climax of this beautiful game that was played on a lovely Sunday in The Coal City? It began so well, but ended unceremoniously and without a peaceful long blast of the ref’s final whistle…
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