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October 27, 2005
Nigeria postpone FA Cup final
The Nigeria FA Cup final, scheduled for Saturday, has been indefinitely postponed.
By Oluwashina Okeleji
BBC Sport, Lagos
Robinson Okosun, spokesman for the Nigeria FA, told BBC Sport that the game between Enyimba and Lobi Stars was put off as a mark of respect to the 117 people that died in an air crash.
Nigeria was thrown into mourning last weekend, when a Bellview Airlines Boeing 737, bound for the capital Abuja, came down after taking off from Lagos.
The tragedy came on the heels of an earlier report that Stella Obasanjo, the wife of the Nigerian president, had died in a Spanish hospital.
This was the result of complications resulting from an operation.
"The entire Nigerian community is mourning the First lady and those who lost their lives in that tragic incident," Okosun said.
No new date has been fixed for the game, which was billed for Port Harcourt's Liberation Stadium.
"We have to sit down with the sponsors of the FA Cup to fix a new date."
In a related development, the Nigeria Football League (NFL) board also called-off this weekend's league fixtures.
"Games have been postponed for a week as we mourn the death of the First Lady Stella Obasanjo and those who died in the ill fated plane crash," NFL executive secretary Salihu Abubakar told BBC Sport.
Abubakar also revealed that on resumption of the league, players will be expected to wear black armbands, in memory of the dead, till the end of the season.
Posted by Publisher at October 27, 2005 02:49 PM
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