They are already more than ten million to have seen this incredible sequence, only on Twitter. The scene takes place on Thursday, during the final of the Ogun State Cup, in Nigeria, a qualifying competition for the final table of the National Cup. The two teams, Remo Stars and Ijebu United, end the match with a score of 0-0, and must decide on penalties. A session won (3-0), but the ridiculousness of which earned it wide circulation on social networks.
In the excerpt published by a Nigerian journalist, we first see the goalkeeper of Remo Stars not making the slightest gesture on a shot from an Ijebu player. A second sequence shows a Remo Stars player deliberately shooting well away from the opposing goal, going so far as to send his ball into touch. “If this isn’t match fixing, I don’t know what is,” quips Ibukun Aluko, journalist and podcast creator behind the most shared post. A first opinion shared by thousands of Internet users.
“There is going to be an investigation,” Football Federation of Nigeria General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi told ESPN on Monday. It’s very, very embarrassing. I have already asked the management of the integrity cell of the federation to manage this investigation. »
Quick investigations? Not necessarily. In a second tweet, Ibukun Aluko evokes “a sign of protest” from the Remo Stars players. “Our club has been constantly abused by the federation,” a source close to the club owner told ESPN. We didn’t even want to participate in this competition, but we were given no choice. »
According to this source, Remo Stars would have been disadvantaged during the meeting, even being refused “an obvious penalty. The referee wanted the game to go to a penalty shootout, he just asked for a minute of added time. It was the last straw”.
“In retrospect, it was a mistake”
The opponents of Ijebu United then say they are ready to boycott the penalty shootout and have the match lost. “They refused and they told us that we would be disqualified for not having finished the match, continues the entourage of the owner. So we said we were going to play it, but that didn’t mean scoring. »
And that’s the origin of this funny final show, according to this source. Who, faced with the extent of the dissemination of this sequence of an anonymous regional cut, regrets the initiative. “In retrospect, it was a mistake,” she concedes. It’s even worse than our initial decision to refuse to play. »