The Cup final in Ogun State, Nigeria, ended in an unlikely penalty shoot-out between Remo Stars and Ijebu United on Thursday, with a motionless goalkeeper and players shooting into touch. According to ESPN, the Nigerian federation will open an investigation to determine if the match was fixed.

The Cup final in Ogun State, south-west Nigeria , ended on Thursday with a penalty shoot-out between Remo Stars and Ijebu. The two teams failed to decide in regular time (0-0) and Ijebu finally won 3 shots on goal to 0. But the decisive session took place in a very strange atmosphere…

A video broadcast on the networks by Ibukun Aluko, a Nigerian journalist, shows the Remo Stars goalkeeper completely motionless during an opposing attempt. One of his partners then sends his shot into the corner, pretending to hold his head in spite. The sequence quickly went viral, prompting its share of mockery and suspicious comments. Many see it as blatant proof of match fixing.

An act of protest?

According to ESPN , the Nigerian federation will open an investigation to shed light on this fiasco. Mohamed Sanusi, its general secretary, called the incident “very, very embarrassing”. The Ogun State Cup is a local competition and its two finalists advance directly to the National Cup final draw. Remo Stars had therefore already obtained their qualification before sabotaging the penalty shootout.

According to a source close to the club owner, quoted by ESPN, it would be an act of protest:

“Our team has been constantly mistreated by the federation. We did not even want to participate in this competition but we were convinced to In the final, the referee made questionable decisions, even denying us a blatant penalty. The referee wanted the game to go to a penalty shootout, he only gave one minute of added time. “

“It was the last straw for us and we decided that we weren’t going to take the penalty shootout. But they told us we had to or we risked being disqualified for not finishing the game. We So we said we can take part in the penalty shootout, but that doesn’t mean we have to score.”

The Remo Stars regret their behavior

The case has been making a lot of noise in Nigeria in recent days. In the highest spheres. Federation President Amaju Pinnick, who was in Morocco earlier this week for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, is said to be following the case closely, as is the President of the Ogun State Football Association. , Ganiyu Majekodunmi.

What put a lot of pressure on the Remo Stars, who how to regret their behavior. 

“In retrospect, we can now see that was a mistake. It looks even worse than our initial decision not to play at all,”

The ESPN source close to the team concluded.

Source: Alexandre Jaquin and ESPN

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