Rangers crisis deepens as players protest unpaid allowances

These are not the best of times for Rangers International FC of Enugu, the champions of the Nigerian Premier Football League (NPFL).

Rangers on Thursday missed their flight to Zambia for the return leg of their CAF Confederations Cup against Zesco.

Why?

The players rebelled because they insisted that the management pays their match allowances before travelling.

They said governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi promised to pay them but had defaulted, so they refused to board the flight.

The flight has been rescheduled for Friday morning.

Rangers are billed to confront Zesco United on Saturday.

The first-leg tie ended 2-2 in Enugu, with Rangers needing a convincing victory to sail through to the next round.

Rangers: From champions to strugglers

After winning the league in 2016, it appeared as if Rangers would return to its golden era. The team last won the league in 1984.

But it took a few months in the new season for things to start falling apart.

Rangers started the 2017 league season in poor form.

Players who once dominated matches started getting thrashed by lesser opponents.

On the African continent, Rangers were knocked out of the African Champions League by Zamalek FC of Egypt.

Alarm bells started ringing when coach Imama Amakapabo was likened to Claudio Raneiri of Leicester who got the sack when poor results persisted.

It was just a matter of time before Imama would be threatened with the sack.

Rangers’ situation got worse on the night the team drew 2-2 with Zesco.

Foster Chimem, spokesperson of the club, said the supporters were restless over the poor performance of the club.

He said the supporters’ action prompted the suspension of Imama “for security reasons”.

Subsequently, the coach took to Twitter to say he had been sacked by the club.

“It’s official received a termination of my contract with Rangers international football Club by email by 5:35pm. Thank you lord for every,” he wrote on Twitter.

Reliable sources in the Rangers camp revealed to TheCable that the team has been demoralised all season as the promises made after winning the league were not fulfilled by the Enugu state government.