Dolphins Football Club of Port Harcourt, one of Nigeria flag bearers in the 2015 CAF Confederation Cup competition may not be out of the competition after all following the unjust walk-over performed by their opponents Club Africain in Tunis on Saturday. It was the first leg first round fixture of the competition.
Speaking to Tidesports in a telephone conversation yesterday, Rivers State Commissioner for Sports, Hon Fred Igwe said that wheels were turning to ensure that justice is done and Dolphins not wrongly dumped out of the competition.
According to him, CAF rule allows for the match to be played on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and when the club was having challenges travelling to Tunisia, the Tunisians and CAF were to move the game by one day to Sunday.
Surprisingly, in what smacks of premeditated conspiracy, Dolphins were unduly kept at the airport in the name of immigration formalities on arrival in Tunis, coupled with other antics by their hosts that ensured they got to the stadium late.
The commissioner admitted though that the team did not travel as early as it should have owing to prayers insistence that they be paid a particular amount as estacode.
He said, the question was not whether the team would travel or not despite our financial challenges, we prepared for them to travel but the players apparent misreading of the situation delayed their departure. However, in all these, we made sure that we got in touch with CAF and the Tunisians through NFF to ensure that the kick-off time is adjusted as allowed by CAF rules, but the Tunisians chose to ignore everything and orchestrate a walk-over”, said the commissioner.
He believes that now that CAF is listening to Dolphins petition, the right thing would be done and the team reinstated in the competition, that is why they are still in Tunis waiting for CAF’s decision.

Enyeama