Enyimba Blames Players For Zanaco Shame

Chairman of Enyimba, Felix Anyansi-Agwu, has faulted the attitude of players of the side after the Aba club’s scandalous 0 – 4 loss to Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZANACO) of Zambia in Lusaka on Saturday.

It was the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup round of 16, and Anyansi-Agwu attributed the loss to the absent without leave (AWOL) of the players.

The Enyimba boss disclosed to Naijaligue.blogspot.com that when the camping exercise ahead of the trip to Lusaka opened in Ota on July 11, only five players reported for training.

He added that the coaches could not hold a proper training session until Tuesday, July 13.

“On Sunday (July 11) when we opened camp in Ota, Ogun State, only five players reported to camp. The coaches waited for the players. Most of them instead of heading to camp decided to stay away after winning the league. The players simply refused to report to camp.

“On Monday, 10 players then reported to camp and by the evening of Monday, we had 15 players. So it took two days after opening camp to hold the first training session before we travelled,” Anyansi-Agwu said.

On July 13, head coach of the Peoples Elephant, Okey Emordi, decided to wield the big stick by turning back players that decided to stroll into camp two days after opening the exercise.

“The coach had to send home players who decided to report to camp on Tuesday because by then the first training session had been held when they came to camp,” said the Enyimba chairman.

However, Anyansi-Agwu refused to comment on the decision of the club to travel just 24 hours before the game against Zanaco.

But he described the loss to Zanaco as a shame considering the fact that Enyimba had just been crowned champion of the Premier League in Nigeria.

Anyansi-Agwu also believes that Enyimba still has a chance of turning the table against its Zambian opponent but a lot of hard work must be put in ahead of the game in a fortnight.