Angered by the accusation level against them by players and officials of Rangers FC of Enugu that FC Taraba paid the referee that officiated the match against them in Jalingo on Sunday and which was reported in the media, team chairman, Tijani Babaginda, has stated unequivocally that they do not pay referees to win their matches.
Babaginda noted that the accusation by the Rangers’ players and officials is totally misleading and is capable of creating a bad image for a team that are still trying to find their bearing in the Nigeria Premier League.
He explained that the two goals scored against Rangers were very clean and clinical goals which could not even be disputed by the Rangers’ players and the officials. Tijani wondered the reason for such accusation, noting that Rangers did not even score a goal that was disallowed by the referee.
The former Nigerian international advised the players and officials of Rangers to be good sportsmen and accept defeats in good faith.
Babangida stressed that since the season began, FC Taraba had never been awarded any penalty, either at home or away, stating that all the goals they had scored have come from open play.
The FC Taraba chairman also stated that he would have expected the writer of the story who obviously was not at the match venue to have carried out his independent investigation before taking one side of the story to the press.
