Desmond Iwuchukwu
Players of Rivers United FC and their officials on Thursday night arrived in Casablanca, Morocco full of enthusiasm, ahead of Sunday’s CAF Champions League second preliminary round second leg match against Wydad Athletic Club.
The Pride of Rivers 35-man contingent arrived at the Mohammed V International Airport at about 11:52 pm on Thursday after a brief stopover in Cotonou, Benin Republic.
The reigning Nigeria Professional Football League Champions go into the second leg tie with a 2-1 advantage and will seek to earn a spot in the group stage with a favourable result on Sunday.
Sunday’s match will hold at the 67,000-capacity Mohammed V stadium in Casablanca.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7pm Nigerian time.
Wydad Casablanca stops Rivers United training with police officers
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Professional Football League champions Rivers United have been prevented from leaving their hotel by Moroccan police officers ahead of their crucial return leg in the first round of the CAF Champions League.
The Pride of Rivers who landed in Morocco in the late hours of Thursday had secured a facility for training this afternoon in preparation for the game.
However, in the process of leaving for the training session, police officers restricted the players and officials of the team from leaving the hotel citing not getting clearance from the government, in spite of the facility being paid for.
Rivers United are duly scheduled to train at the Mohammed V Stadium on Saturday as mandated by CAF, but, on a good account, the team has learned that they will be prevented from using the said facility tomorrow as well.
The team has so far informed the Nigerian embassy in Morocco of this shocking development through the Nigeria Football Federation who has also informed the Confederation of African Football (CAF) while the club waits for their response.
