For Alleged Poor Officiating, Protest Trails Edo Victory Over Lagos In Women’s Football Final

The women’s football event of the ongoing Edo 2020 National Sports Festival ended in chaos after the host team, Edo Babes, ran away with a lone goal victory to win the gold medal of the event at the expense of Team Lagos.

The encounter, which was played at the football pitch of the University of Benin on Monday was marred with alleged poor officiating. Edo Babes scored the lone goal in the first half of the controversial final match.

The outcome of the final match did not go down well with Team Lagos and their officials, who viewed most of the calls of the centre referee as being biased in favour of the host team, who were so desperate to win the gold medal of the event.

It was observed that at any slight physical contact and infringement on the host team by the visiting Team Lagos, the referee would not hesitate to blow his whistle, while he looked the other way when the home team do the same to players of Team Lagos.

Trouble, however, started when at the end of the 90 minutes regulation time, the referee called for a minute added time when it was glaring that there ought to have been more than the minute the referee decided.

The situation became tense when the Deputy Governor of Edo State, who is also the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), Philip Shaibu, who came to the stadium towards the end of the match, allegedly gave an instruction that Team Lagos players should be arrested.

However, the timely intervention of the security men at the stadium saved the situation as the protest was put under control.