Nigeria team Remo Stars have denied accusations of match-fixing following their bizarre penalty shootout defeat in the Ogun State FA Cup final against Ijebu United on Thursday. The penalty shootout between the two teams went viral as the penalty shootout was decided in controversial circumstances.
Remo players seemed to purposely miss the target with their spot kicks while their goalkeeper stood perfectly still to allow on effort past him as as Ijebu triumphed 3-0 to win the competition.
What have Remo Stars said about the penalty shootout?
Despite the claims that Remo threw the game because it had been fixed the club's
secretary, Michael Onikute, has told GOAL that the players were in fact protesting against the refereeing decisions during the final.
“Well, first on the allegations of match-fixing, this is totally false,” Onikute said.
“What I can deduce from the social media posts is that some individuals are trying to get much attraction by posting the [penalties] video with the word match-fixing – because they know it would alert the football world.
Next Match
“You will also see that they never presented a concrete explanation about the game rather than match-fixing.
“That shows the level of unprofessionalism of such journalists involved in the propaganda.
“If indeed the match was fixed, we would not have streamed the game live on our social media channels.
“That being said, the game in question was not even credible enough to be on any sports betting platform and all team members are banned from taking part in any form of betting activities.”
He added: “We as a team were utmost disappointed with the level of organization, coordination and officiating of the games in the state cup.
“Just before the end of the normal time, the match officials ended the match without the additional time and before the end of the 90th minute so the game could end in penalties.
“We opted not to play the penalties, but the Ogun State FA insisted we played, or risk being banned.
“We have been facing this challenge every year we play in the State FA Cup, and we felt we should make a statement against this,” he added.
“In fact, we have not reached the final in the last five years because of this same reason. Our decision may be weird, but I am sure the organizers now know our stand and they will do better next time."
What happened in the penalty shootout?
The cup final went viral on social media on Thursday.
The Remo Stars goalkeeper made it easy for their opponents to score by standing still in the middle of the goal while they fired into the bottom corner.
Then, one Remo Stars player stepped up to take a penalty and sent it so wide of the mark that it went over the side line.
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