The Nigeria Football Federation has lodged an appeal against CAF’s decision to overturn Edo Queens’ WAFU-B final victory over Ampem Darkoa Ladies.
The appeal, filed on Tuesday, contests the ruling that the match should restart from extra time after CAF set aside Edo Queens’ 4-1 penalty shoot-out win.
The September 5 final in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, ended 2-2 after regulation time, before Edo Queens prevailed on penalties to secure the WAFU-B title and the zone’s CAF Women’s Champions League ticket.
CAF subsequently reviewed a protest from Ampem Darkoa and ruled on Sunday that the teams should have played two periods of extra time before a penalty shoot-out, as stipulated under Article 72.4 of the competition regulations.
The NFF argued that Edo Queens should not be held responsible for the match officials’ decision to proceed directly to penalties.
The federation said the players neither requested nor influenced the decision, but followed the referee’s instructions and competed in the shoot-out in good faith.
It added that CAF had not accused the Nigerian champions of misconduct, manipulation or bad faith.
The NFF also stressed that benefiting from an officiating error is different from causing or deliberately seeking such an 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.”
