Enyimba – Rivers clash all about Nigerian football bragging rights

The CAF Confederation Cup was founded following the merger of the now-defunct CAF Cup and African Cup Winners’ Cup. No Nigerian club has ever won the competition in its present format. So when Enyimba International and Rivers United go toe-to-toe in a first leg playoff round tie in Aba on Sunday, a ticket for the group stages of Africa’s second-tier club competition will not be the only thing on the line.

Bragging rights, bad blood and an unspoken rivalry over which is the best team in the country will all play a role in the minds of key participants and fans.

The beginning; the coefficient
The Confederation of African Football, or CAF, recently employed a five-year ranking system to determine the number of clubs that each member association may enter in Africa’s club football competitions, the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup. 
Associations ranked in the top twelve enter two sides into each of the two continental tournaments, while the remaining associations are limited to a single side in each competition.
The associations ranked in the top 12 for the 2020-21 competitions in descending order included Morocco (190 ranking points), Egypt (167), Tunisia (140), DR Congo (83), Algeria (81), South Africa (68.5) Zambia (43), Nigeria (39), Guinea (38), Angola (36), Sudan (29.5) and Libya (16.5).
This calculation meant that Nigeria would supply four clubs, two each in the 2020-21 CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup. Those clubs would be selected based on tehri performances in the 2019-20 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season and the 2020 AITEO Cup.

The top two finishers from the season’s NPFL season would represent Nigeria in the CAF Champions League while the third best club from the NPFL and the winners of the AITEO Cup would be the country’s representatives in the CAF Confederation Cup.Basic, simple and extremely straightforward on the surface but in reality, one of the biggest controversies in Nigerian football was about to play out.

Controversy, NFF, LMC and the PPG debate
The 2019-20 season was suspended on March 18, 2020 after match day 25 due to the outbreak of the novel COVID-19 pandemic. The season never restarted and the process for selecting the country’s four representatives in the two competitions became a knotty issue.
This was because as at the time the league was halted, Rivers United were in second place having amassed 45 points from 25 matches. Ordinarily, Plateau United (1st with 45 points from 25 games), Rivers United and Lobi Stars (3rd with 43 points from 25 matches) would have gotten the tickets for the two competitions, via the league route.

But there was a spanner in the works. Enyimba, who were sitting fifth place, having amassed 36 points from 20 matches, had played five games less than Plateau United, Rivers United and Lobi Stars.

This meant the League Management Company (LMC), the body tasked with the running of Nigeria’s domestic league, would have to adopt an unprecedented tiebreaker to arrive at the final placement of clubs on the log. The LMC ruled, after the use of the points per game, (PPG – roughly calculated by dividing the total number of points accumulated by number of games played) that Enyimba had finished in second place on the log ahead of Rivers United.

Rivers United predictably rejected the decision and issued a strongly-worded protest to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). Rivers claimed that they and not Enyimba finished in second place, even with the use of PPG.

The NFF ruled against Rivers United with the LMC’s verdict upheld and an official statement emanating from the football governing body in the country to that effect, promptly dispatched to ratify both positions.
“The LMC followed due process by consulting the participating clubs in coming to a decision on the PPG and its application,” the statement read. “That the majority of the NPFL Clubs duly voted (18-2) to end the league and adopt the PPG system to homologate the final league table.  
“That the LMC acted within its powers and authority, and adhered to the letter of its rulebook (NPFL Rule Book) in coming to a decision on the final PPG-adjusted NPFL table which it adopted for the 2019/2020 season.  
“That the NFF does not have the power to overturn the decision of the LMC on the matter unless it is found to have flouted its own rules and regulations as contained in the NPFL Rule Book.  
“That the Committee, therefore unanimously recommends that the NFF Executive Committee endorse the LMC decision and the Final NPFL 2019/2020 Season PPG table in line with the provisions of the NFF Statutes.”

It was now clear that Rivers United would only achieve their dreams of participating in the 2020-21 CAF Champions League if they made an expedition into uncharted territory, by seeking international arbitration. The club made it clear they were ready to explore that option.

Rivers United, CAS and the Enyimba angle
Rivers United announced that they would head to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) ‘to seek the proper interpretation of the applicable rules’.

The Sports Commissioner in Rivers State, Boma Iyaye did not hold back in a press conference as he explained the position of the sponsors on the issue.
“This is a clear case of injustice and undue victimization,” Iyaye said. “In light of this development, the Rivers State Government, sponsors of Rivers United Football Club, is compelled to seek the proper interpretation of the applicable rules, and a pronouncement on the propriety or otherwise of the actions and decisions of the LMC on the matter, from the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS). “We are eager for justice and determined to protect Rivers people and its interest in line with the philosophy of our leader, Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.”   
“The President of the NFF, Amaju Pinnick and Shehu Dikko (LMC chairman) are taking football in Nigeria fifty (50) years behind. They should be called to order (by Nigeria’s Sports Minister, Sunday Dare) or Nigerian football will continue to dwindle.”

Many waited with bated breath for what would transpire next but those expecting even greater drama to unfold were bitterly disappointed. Rivers United never made good its threat to go to CAS, no official statement was subsequently released to that effect and the Port Harcourt club eventually settled for the CAF Confederation Cup.

Enyimba was ratified, alongside Plateau United, as Nigeria’s second team in the CAF Champions League.

Different strokes for different folks
Enyimba’s participation in the 2020-21 CAF Champions League was short-lived. After edging past Burkinabe club, Rahimo 2-1 on aggregate in the preliminary round, the Aba club were badly outclassed by Sudanese club, Al Merrikh 4-2 over two legs in the first round of the competition as they went out like a light.

In contrast, Rivers United were peerless in the opening rounds of the CAF Confederation Cup and made steady progress.
The Port Harcourt club qualified for the first round after eliminating Equatoguinean club, Futuro Kings in the preliminary round.
South African club, Bloemfontein Celtic were their next opponents and a 5-0 hounding (2-0 away and 3-0 at home) put paid to the ambitions of Siwelele making further progress in the competition.

United’s home fixture was played in Cotonou, Benin Republic. The lopsided nature of the result was seen as a statement of intent by the Port Harcourt club.

Enyimba had dropped to the CAF Confederation Cup after their dismal failure in the Champions League and a potential clash against their bitter rivals loomed large. When the two clubs were pitted against each other during the draw for the playoffs on Friday, January 8, 2021, few could argue that it was always written in the stars that the two Nigerian clubs would face off over two legs for the right to progress to the Group Stage of the competition.

Enyimba, tradition and the quest for continental glory
Nigeria’s most successful football club is Enyimba International. For years, just the name was enough to put fear in the hearts of opposition players.

The only Nigerian club to have won the CAF Champions League title, Enyimba reached the quarter-finals of the CAF Confederation Cup in 2020 and the semifinals in 2018. They will be eager to go one better in 2021 and become the first-ever Nigerian club to win the title.

Head coach of the Aba club, Fatai Osho is cautiously optimistic about the side’s chances in the competition.
“Rivers United is a great club and we are full of respect for them,” Osho told SPNAfricaNews. “The two games will be extremely tight but we go into them with belief that we can do well.”

Enyimba currently sit atop of the NPFL standings, having dropped just six points from their first nine games in the league this term.
Rivers United have dropped nine points in the NPFL this term and are hanging on the coattails of the ‘People’s Elephant’, occupying second place in the standings.

Something has to give.

Rivers United; Blue tide rising
The sponsors of Rivers United FC, the Rivers State Government organized a gala for the team on Thursday, 72 hours before the first game against Enyimba in Aba. A brand new team bus was presented to them and Nyesom Wike, the Rivers State Governor made lavish financial promises to the players of the team.

Wik vowed that the players lives would be “changed forever” if they win the competition. Spirits could never have been higher in the United camp.

Technical manager of the club, Stanley Eguma insisted that the players ‘have no reason to fail.’
“We have planned for these two games against Enyimba,” Eguma said. “Enyimba is one of the strongest teams in Africa and they are our rival opponents. 
“This is a derby because the two sides know everything about each other. We are motivated and cannot complain about anything.
“The games will not be easy because these are two top teams coming up against each other but we are confident of qualifying. Our team has been super motivated and the players have no reason to fail”