‘Delta Queens lost to Ghana on technical ground, not poor officiating’

Okpanam Hockey Stadium May Be Re-designed

The Chairman, Delta Sports Commission, Onoriode Oborevwore, has rubbished claims of ‘poor officiating’ raised by head coach of Delta Queens hockey team, Richard Adeoye, as reason for their early exit at the ongoing African Cup for Club Hockey Championships in Egypt.

Rather, Oborevwore said that Delta Queens Hockey team lost on technical ground to Ghana Revenue Authority in their encounter in the Egyptian city of Ismailia on Wednesday.

The Asaba-based team was beaten 3-1 by Nigeria’s sports rival, Ghana, to wave goodbye to the championships, a defeat coach Adeoye blamed on ‘bias’ officiating by Egyptians umpire.

“The officiating in our match against Ghana on Wednesday evening was beyond our imagination. The referees acted as if she was sent to practically stop us from making progress in the championships. She used the power of her whistle to stop every move made by my players. At a point, virtually everyone inside the stadium became suspicious of the referee (umpire) due to the way she was using the whistle to truncate every move by my players,” coach Adeoye had alleged.

However, the Sports Commission boss, Oborevwore, who watched the match in Egypt, told The Guardian in a telephone chat, on Friday, that the cry of poor officiating raised by the team’s coach was just a way of covering up his poor technical knowledge.

“There was nothing like poor officiating in our match against Ghana,” Oborevwore said. “The Ghanaians were better technically and I expected our coach to say the obvious instead of crying wolf. I felt bad reading him accused the Egyptian referee of bias. It does not tell good story about us. Gone are the days when people go for a championship, perform poorly and use ‘poor officiating’ as cover up. In Delta Sports Commission, we try as much as possible to discourage such attitude among the coaches.”

He continued: “After Delta Queens managed to survive the first quarter, the Ghanaians came into the second quarters with a different style of ‘scooping’ the ball, which confused our players. Before we knew what was happening, Ghana scored three goals within four minutes. The scoreline could have been up to 10-0 if not for the steps we took by gingering to players from the s pectators stand.”

Oborevwore revealed that Delta may bid to host the African Hockey Club Championships in the nearest future having participated in the competition in Malawi, Ghana, Kenya and Egypt.

“But we may need to re-torch some aspect of the Hockey Stadium at Okpanam to meet international standard. I will have to meet with our Governor in that regard,” he said.

Though, Oborevwore refused to speak on areas to be improved upon at the stadium, The Guardian learnt the playing turf may be removed completely for a brand new turf that will see a free flow of hockey.

The Hockey stadium at Okpanam, near Asaba was commissioned in 2024 ahead the National Youth Games, which Delta State hosted. An official in Delta State Ministry of Housing told The Guardian that the Hockey Stadium in Okpanam was awarded in 2022 at a cost of N689million, reviewed to N987million in 2023 and later reviewed to N1.011billion in 2024.