CONFUSION TRAILS HEARTLAND, WIKKI MATCH

Heartland is yet to know its fate after refusing to play its Week 28 rescheduled match against Wikki Tourists on Monday.

The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Premier League, Alhassan Yakmut, said on Lagos Television on Tuesday that Wikki Tourists would be awarded the maximum points for Heartland.

The Owerri club however said it was not aware of the decision to punish them for not showing up in Bauchi for the match. The club media officer, Cajetan Nkwopara, told our correspondent on the telephone on Tuesday that the club made a request to the NPL to postpone the match due to the unavailability of their star players for the encounter.

He said, 'I don't know anything about a walk-over because the NPL has not informed us about their decision.

'We are not expecting the NPL to punish us for not honouring the match because we made an official request on Friday for another postponement pending the return of our key players who are on national assignment. Three of our players are representing the country at the WAFU Cup in Ogun State while Orji Kalu is with the Flying Eagles in South Africa. John Owoeri has also travelled because he was invited.'

Yakmut had said Heartland violated the rule guiding the postponement of a match.