A Nigerian team has been accused of match-fixing following a bizarre penalty shoot-out.
The Ogun State FA Cup final between Remo Stars and Ijebu United on Thursday proceeded to penalties after both sides failed to score in normal time.
In a video that has gone viral on Twitter, some of the players’ intentions seemed to be clear as they appeared to match-fix.
Remo Stars goalkeeper (above) made no attempt to save the penalty as he stood still
First, the Remo Stars goalkeeper made no effort to save a penalty as he stood still to watch the ball go past him.
Things got even more bizarre when a player from the same team stepped up to take his kick from 12 yards out and somehow sent it close to the corner flag.
Ijebu United went on to lift the trophy after winning 3-0 in the shootout.
Podcaster Ibukun Aluko was left ruing what he had seen as he tweeted: ‘If this isn’t Match Fixing, then I don’t know what it is.
‘Why is Nigerian football like this? Why don’t we ever want progress??
‘This is Ogun State FA Cup final between Remo Stars and Ijebu United’.
A Remo stars stepped up to take his penalty kick and somehow dragged it close to corner flag
Fans took to social media to react to the incident that happened in Nigeria on Thursday
Aluko went on to provide an update on the incident. He said: ‘I found out that Remo stars players deliberately threw away their first 3 spot kicks and their Goalkeeper also remained motionless when the opponents took theirs as a MARK OF PROTEST for the unfair officiating in the game.’
Other fans also took to social media to react, with one posting: ‘They could have done it without making it so obvious.’
A second fan wrote: ‘The first one I thought, maybe yeah, keeper isn’t doing much…but that second penalty!’
‘This gotta be the craziest example of match fixing I’ve ever seen in my life’, a third fan tweeted.