Nigeria National League campaigner, JM Liberty FC of Makurdi has cried out to the chieftains of the Nigeria Football Federation, (NFF) headed by Melvin Amaju Pinnick, the Nigeria National League (NNL), and well-meaning football stakeholders in the country demanding justice in their match against Adamawa United in Week 20 of the 2021/22 NNL season.
JM Liberty FC in its petition to the Chief Operating Officer, NNL, and Emmanuel Adesanya claimed that Adamawa United's inability to provide a valid license in the said match played at Atiku Abubakar Stadium, Fufore in Adamawa state is enough reasons to upturned the result of the match in their favour.
The said match was originally fixed for Wednesday but was later rescheduled for Thursday morning by the NNL with the homers, Adamawa United winning by 2-1.
JM Liberty who plies their trade in the NNL Group A 2 claimed that Adamawa United played the match with only 13 valid license presented at the match venue. “Adamawa United dressed 20 players for the match out of which 7 players did not have any license”
The president of the Makurdi side, Jeremiah Avungu quoted the rules and regulations guiding the NNL league to our correspondent. According to him, “the NNL in her circular 202 dated 13th May 2022 warned in strong terms that only valid license shall be accepted in the remaining part of the league.
Avungu alleged that the match commissioner Shuaibu Mohammed (Gombe state) was almost turning into a “kill-joy” to the team by frustrating all their efforts to get justice claiming to be acting on directives from above.
“The match commissioner thwarted all our efforts even when we are telling him that we want to protest. He made life difficult for us. He was totally biased against us and frustrated all our efforts even after we called the NNL Secretariat. He gave us the wrong number as his phone number. This is highly unbecoming of somebody that’s supposed to be above board. Avungu said .
He cited the case between Ottasolo vs Bayelsa United and Ekiti United vs Ibom Youths where the NNL awarded boardroom points to Bayelsa and Ibom Youths after Ottasolo and Ekiti United failed to provide a valid licenses for their home matches.
Rule 11.13 says “ the eligibility of a player to feature for a club in league matches shall be confirmed upon issuance of a player license in favour of the registering club.
The club pray that since Adamawa United could not provide license for their players and was dressed for the match the NNL should graciously award 3 points and 3 goals to JM Liberty FC due to the precedence that was earlier established in the league.