Pillars’ bad boys get the rod for attempting to put the beautiful game into disrepute

The Nigeria Premier League has made a precedence of an insolence act by going down hard on Kano Pillars Football Club over the team’s behaviour in the last match of the Super Four tournament on the last day. The incidence took place in the match against Enyimba at the Ijebu-Ode venue of the competition on Sunday. As punishment, some members of the team has been given various, heavy-handed punishment that the League believes would serve as warning to others and a deterrent to the offenders in future.

According to the League last night, a Kano Pillars official, Ali Adamu, is banned from all NPL activities for three years for jumping out of the substitute bench to attack the referee and assistant referee in the match against Enyimba during the match.
The Acting Executive Secretary of NPL, Tunji Babalola, disclosed last night that the punishment also revealed that Sani Haliru, who was in goal for the Kano side also stand banned from football for six months for acts that are not in line with the ethics, rules of the game.

He added: “Kano Pillars will also have to pay a fine of N500, 000 before they are registered for the in-coming season. The team will also be warned to make sure their officials conform to the rules of the game or face further sanctions.

“The vision of the new board of NPL is to stop every act that has the potential to hurt the game. Towards this, no stone will be left unturned to make sure that sanity prevails in the system.”
The ugly scenario occurred, after the winning goal was scored by the Aba side towards the end of the match. Feeling that something was wrong with the way the goal had been scored, Pillars’ players protested to the referee asking that the goal be ruled as coming from offside play, but their plea was turned down.

Rather than continued with the match after their protest had been turned down; as it is expected of a disciplined team in the game, some members of the team went wild. Taking laws into their own hands, they encroached on the field of play and in the process; the Pillars official assaulted the referee.