Officials
of Malian club, AS Real Bamako were spotted at the weekend in Ibadan, keeping a
close watch and taking notes on the activities of reigning Nigeria Professional
Football League (NPFL) runners-up, Rivers United FC.
The
officials (one of them, a cameraman) were spotted at the Lekan Salami Stadium
during club’s training session on Saturday, February 4 and 24 hours later at
the same venue when Rivers United lost 1-2 to Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC)
at the same venue in an NPFL contest.
Chief
Coach of Rivers United, Willy Udube said he was informed of the development
which ‘should not be a thing of worry for our fans’.
“I
was informed that three officials from AS Real Bamako watched both our training
session last weekend. To
be honest, this should not be a thing of worry for our fans because we knew
such a thing would happen; I will say it is normal practice.
“As
a former footballer myself, I saw such things happen countless times when we
played on the continent.
“We
have been working hard ourselves to get a good result in Mali against AS Real
Bamako and I am sure we will get a positive result,” Udube said on club’s
official website, www.riversunitedfc.com.ng.
Rivers
United have never previously participated in Caf’s inter-club competitions in
their one-year history.
The
‘Pride of Rivers’ will be guests of AS Real Bamako on Saturday at the Stade
Omnisports Modibo Keïta, Bamako in the first leg of their preliminary round
clash in Africa’s apex club competition.
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