‘Delta Queens lost to Ghana on technical ground, not poor officiating’

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The Chairman, Delta Sports Commission, Onoriode Oborevwore, has rubbished claims of ‘poor officiating’ raised by head coach of Delta Queens hockey team, Richard Adeoye, as reason for their early exit at the ongoing African Cup for Club Hockey Championships in Egypt.

Rather, Oborevwore said that Delta Queens Hockey team lost on technical ground to Ghana Revenue Authority in their encounter in the Egyptian city of Ismailia on Wednesday.

The Asaba-based team was beaten 3-1 by Nigeria’s sports rival, Ghana, to wave goodbye to the championships, a defeat coach Adeoye blamed on ‘bias’ officiating by Egyptians umpire.

“The officiating in our match against Ghana on Wednesday evening was beyond our imagination. The referees acted as if she was sent to practically stop us from making progress in the championships. She used the power of her whistle to stop every move made by my players. At a point, virtually everyone inside the stadium became suspicious of the referee (umpire) due to the way she was using the whistle to truncate every move by my players,” coach Adeoye had alleged.

However, the Sports Commission boss, Oborevwore, who watched the match in Egypt, told The Guardian in a telephone chat, on Friday, that the cry of poor officiating raised by the team’s coach was just a way of covering up his poor technical knowledge.

“There was nothing like poor officiating in our match against Ghana,” Oborevwore said. “The Ghanaians were better technically and I expected our coach to say the obvious instead of crying wolf. I felt bad reading him accused the Egyptian referee of bias. It does not tell good story about us. Gone are the days when people go for a championship, perform poorly and use