Rangers International FC of Enugu has debunked the rumours that the club did not pay the mandatory 3,000 dollar-appeal fee to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) which led to its rejection.
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The club’s Media Officer, Foster Chime, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on phone on Friday in Lagos that Rangers actually paid the mandatory 3,000 dollar -appeal fee to the continental football regulatory body.
It will be recalled that CAF disqualified Rangers from further participation in the Confederation Cup for fielding an ineligible player.
The player, Daniel Emmanuel, was a former 3SC FC of Ibadan goalkeeper whom the club said had not completed his transfer to Rangers.
In spite of overcoming CS Sfaxien of Tunisia on a 1-0 aggregate to qualify for the group stages of the Confederation Cup, Rangers were eventually expelled over the “infraction’’.
The Enugu-based side subsequently appealed against CAF’s decision, but the appeal was said to have been rejected by CAF over nonpayment of the appeal fee, some newspapers reported.
“That’s not true; we appealed to CAF board through the NFF and paid accordingly, so this allegation is false.
“Our appeal was rejected for reasons best know to them,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, Ademola Olajire, the Assistant Director of Media for the NFF, also corroborated Chime’s claim that Rangers had paid the mandatory fee.
“We appealed but it was rejected, and we did so accordingly so nobody can say Rangers did not appeal or failed to pay the fine because that is not true.
“And it’s also not sending money across that hindered the appeal from falling through we did the needful,’’ he said.
