Enyimba protest rescheduling of Zamalek tie

Nigerian champions Enyimba have described the sudden rescheduling of a CAF Champions League tie at Zamalek as “highly unfair”, arguing that they do not have enough players to play the match on Saturday.

Enyimba left Nigeria on Thursday afternoon thinking that their make or break tie against the Egyptians would be on Sunday, August 14.

But shortly after arriving in Cairo, a letter from the Confederation of African Football was received by the club, saying that the match had been scheduled for Saturday as a result of security concerns.

“This is highly unfair. I don’t know how the fixture of a game as important as this can be brought forward without any consultation with the visiting team. It’s against the rules,” Enyimba chairman Felix Anyansi-Agwu said.

“Moreover, we travelled with a limited number of players,” he said.

“We do not have the requisite number of players for a match on Saturday, so we are appealing to CAF to move the game to Monday, August 15.

“We will also be appealing to the Egyptian FA and Zamalek to assist us in changing our booking reservations with Egypt Air from Monday to Tuesday. This change will cause us difficulties and we are appealing to CAF, the Egyptian FA and Zamalek SC to make things easy for us, because we have no hand in the adjustment of the fixture.”

Enyimba have lost their opening two matches in Group B and will be hoping to win in Cairo to keep alive their dreams of a third continental crown.

Zamalek are second in the table with three points behind already qualified Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa.