Enyimba to play Rivers United or Bloemfontein Celtic in Confederation Cup play-off

By Our Editor/Goal.com

The People’s Elephant will battle either the Pride of Rivers or Siwelele in their quest to reach the group stage of the competition

Enyimba will face either Rivers United or South Africa’s Bloemfontein Celtic in the play-off round of the Caf Confederation Cup.

Following their 4-2 defeat on aggregate to Sudan’s Al Merreikh in the Caf Champions League first round, the two-time African champions got relegated to the second-tier competition of African club football.

And going by the pairing conducted at Caf Headquarter in Cairo on Friday, Fatai Osho’s men would be gunning for glory – albeit, they must negotiate their way past their Nigeria Professional Football League rivals or the South African top-flight side.

The second leg first-round clash between the Pride of Rivers and John Maduka’s Siwelele billed for the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, Port Harcourt on Wednesday was called off by the Confederation of African Football following the South Africans’ failure to get a waiver to fly into Nigeria from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) had pleaded with Caf to stage the reverse fixture in any of the country’s neighbouring nations with less strict Covid-19 protocols.

“Please understand that the health policy as put in place by the Nigeria health authority is aimed at controlling the spread of the already (high) number of Covid-19 infections in Nigeria and not aimed at South African nationals,” read a letter signed by NFF general secretary Mohammed Sanusi.

Late goals from Godwin Aguda and Fortune Omoniwari handed Stanley Eguma’s men a massive 2-0 away win in the first leg played at Dr Petrus Molemela Stadium.