.jpeg)
By Okechukwu Onuegbu
Soccer fans felt frustrated and disappointed on Thursday as Eyimba International Aba refused to turn up for a friendly preseason match against Rangers FC Enugu.
The match was scheduled to hold at 12noon at Awka Township Stadium in Awka, the Anambra State capital, but absence of Eyimba International with no formal verbal or written communication left everyone including Rangers FC stranded.
Factcheckng reports that Rangers waited for them up to 5pm all to no avail and had to travel late back to Enugu probably feeling disappointed.
Speaking to Factcheckng, a fan, Mr Mgbemena Christian, described the Eyimba's action as uncalled for, wondering if it was out of fear due to their recent bad performance.
"Enyimba snubbed Awka fans as they fail to honor their preseason friendly match against Rangers. We were pissed as we waited up to 5pm without seeing them. They ought to have communicated Rangers over their action... Enyimba have been in a series of poor outings since they were booted out of the continental match this season," he added.
Speaking in an interview, the Rangers FC General Manager, Mr Amobi Ezeaku described the outing as unprofessional.
"It is unprofessional because we agreed on this match and Enyimba did not show up. We've been here since morning trying to know what the problem is and they continuously say they are on the way. Look at the time it is 5 o'clock, there is no way we can play, we need to now go back.
"Whatever logistics problem Enyimba is having, we had expected that they would have been open minded and transparent. We are football family. Well we take it as one of those things. We have seen their Sporting Director, Ifeanyi Ekwueme and he expressed the sorry state of his mind with respect to this disappointment. The fans want to see this kind of game and they came all the way to watch and Enyimba did not show up," he added.
Although our attempts to obtain the reasons behind the refusal of Eyimba to turnup for the friendly preseason match failed, it was learnt that they would likely play with Awka based team, Peace FC, tomorrow (Friday September 15).