The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has challenged the Confederation of African Football’s ruling to overturn Edo Queens’ win against Ghanaian champions Ampem Darkoa Ladies in the WAFU-B final and to have the match restart from extra time.
Filed on Tuesday on Edo Queens’ behalf, the appeal contests CAF’s decision to void the Nigerian team’s 4-1 penalty shoot-out triumph, which followed a September 5 final in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, that finished 2-2 after regulation time.
After prevailing in the shoot-out, Edo Queens had been named WAFU-B champions and handed the zone’s spot in the CAF Women’s Champions League.
Yet after a protest from Ampem Darkoa, CAF ruled on Sunday that the match ought to have gone to two periods of extra time before penalties, as stipulated by Article 72.4 of the competition regulations.
In its appeal, the NFF contended that Edo Queens should not be penalized for a mistake made by the match officials, emphasizing that the players neither asked for nor brought about the decision to go straight to penalties.
The federation stated that Edo Queens simply followed the referee’s directive and took part in the shoot-out in good faith and noted that no misconduct, manipulation, or bad faith was found against the Nigerian champions.
The NFF went on to argue that there is a fundamental distinction between gaining from an official’s error and causing or bringing about that error.
“The fact that Edo Queens ultimately won the shoot-out cannot retrospectively convert its compliance with the referee’s instruction into responsibility for the regulatory breach.
“There is an important distinction between benefiting from an official’s error and causing or procuring the error.
“It is therefore difficult to justify a remedy that effectively removes the sporting consequence of the penalty shoot-out from Edo Queens, where the club was not responsible for the circumstances that produced it,” the NFF argued.
It thus challenged CAF’s right to cancel the completed shoot-out and order the match to restart from extra time, given that neither of the participating teams was responsible for the irregularity.
The federation further argued that any remedy CAF imposed must rest on a clear regulatory foundation and be proportionate to the irregularity that was established.
It accordingly called on the CAF Appeals Committee to reverse the ruling and confirm Edo Queens’ 4-1 penalty-shoot-out win, maintaining that the sporting outcome of the match should not be stripped from a team that followed the match officials’ instructions.
