LMC fines El Kanemi N3 million, orders club to play without fans

The League Management Company (LMC) yesterday descended on El Kanemi Football Club of Maiduguri over the alleged hooliganism that trailed their 2-2 draw with Go Round in the Nigerian Professional League (NPFL) last week.

At the end of the Match Day 17 fixture in Maiduguri, some people suspected to be supporters of El Kanemi Warriors attacked players and officials of Go Round FC with dangerous weapons. The Port Harcourt-based Go Round FC was eventually rescued by military personnel.

In sanctioning EL Kanemi, the LMC said in a notice signed by its Chief Operating Officer, Salihu Abubakar that the Maiduguri club breached sections of its framework and rules, including Rule B13.18 and B13.52.2.

The charge read, “You are in breach of the Framework and Rules of the Nigeria Professional Football League, in that on Sunday, May 5 2019, in the course of your Match Day 17 Fixture: El-Kanemi Warriors vs. Go Round, some of your supporters severally threw objects including water sachets, plastic bottles and stones towards Match Officials and towards the field of play.”

It added that El-Kanemi Warriors also breached Rule B13.52.2 by “failing to ensure restriction of access by unauthorized persons to restricted areas as some supporters gained access to the dressing room and interfered with the Referee.”

On a third count, the club was charged with breaching of Rule B13.18 in that some of their supporters encroached onto and harassed the visiting team and match officials, preventing them from exiting the field of play immediately after the match.

For the above offences, the LMC fined the club N3, 250.000 and ordered them to play their “next three home matches behind closed doors based on the previous order of suspended sentence in the wake of disturbances after the Match Day 4 fixture against Nasarawa United.”

The LMC also ordered El Kanemi to organise a supporters education and orientation workshop to be supervised by the LMC to inculcate in the fans the values of fair play, friendship and orderly conduct which football promotes.

It gave the club 48 hours to either submit to the ruling or elect to appear before a disciplinary commission, adding, “any such decision must be communicated in writing to the office of the Chief Operating Officer of the LMC.”