ENUGU — Enugu Rangers have started the process of appealing their disqualification from this year’s Caf Confederation Cup.
SuperSport
A statement from the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Tuesday revealed that the Glo Premier League club have “immediately set in motion the process to appeal the decision”.
Caf threw out Rangers from the mini-league stage of the 2013 Caf Confederation Cup for fielding an ineligible player in Emmanuel Daniel in the playoff round against CS Sfaxien.
NFF general-secretary Barrister Musa Amadu said Caf in its letter dated July 2, to the federation based its decision on “documents and letters sent by the club Shooting Stars (3SC) and its chairman”.
Amadu claimed the documents from 3SC confirmed that “by the time the player was registered on December 24 2012, no agreement was found between Shooting Stars and Enugu Rangers for the player Daniel Emmanuel.”
The federation scribe also expressed shock at the disqualification of the Enugu club in a matter he termed “internal.” He also said the NFF had seen the contract for Daniel while at 3SC which he claimed ran between January and December 2012.
“We are absolutely shocked that an internal transfer matter between two clubs could snowball into a situation that will see a Nigerian club disqualified from continental competition.
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“We have seen the player’s contract. He signed a contract to play for Shooting Stars FC between January and December 2012 and at the expiration of his contract, duly signed for Enugu Rangers. The player did not start playing for Enugu Rangers until he secured his licence from the League Management Company (LMC) in April this year.
“It is also on record that the player had featured for Enugu Rangers against clubs like Heartland FC and Sunshine Stars, and even against Shooting Stars in Enugu a couple of weeks ago, without any of the clubs protesting his eligibility,” Amadu said.
He also declared that the NFF and the LMC will back Rangers in their appeal at Caf.
“The NFF and LMC will afford Enugu Rangers total support in this case and we are confident that the club will be reinstated in the competition,” Amadu concluded.
