The management of Sunshine Stars FC of Akure and 3SC of Ibadan may have concluded arrangement to meet and end the rivalry between the two clubs.
The management of the Akure-based team said it was planning to meet its counterpart in Ibadan to prevent “incidents’’ any time both teams play.
John Ola-Mafo, Chairman of Ondo State Football Agency (ODSFA), told a news conference in Akure that, there were always accusations and counter-accusations anytime both team play.
Mafo said there were reports in some sections of the media that, Rasheed Balogun, the Team Manager of 3SC, was beaten in the Match Day 9 of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) in Akure.
Mafo said that the management was always doing everything humanly possible to ensure that peace reigned on any match day in Akure.
“At our level, we are going to initiate peace moves with the management of 3SC of Ibadan.
“It is also important to call on football managers in this country, the LMC and NFF to appropriate peace measures between these two neighbouring teams,’’ he said.
Mafo said it was not fair to his team for some news organisations to single out Sunshine Stars or blow events involving the team out of proportion.
“It is not fair to Sunshine Stars, when some media organisations start counting incidents involving the team as far back as 2013 to date.
“To me, I don’t really know what they stand to gain by that, but I know it’s all moves to call a good dog a bad name to hang it,’’ he said.
He said that events involving other teams, worse than what happened in Akure were not always reported.
Mafo appealed to media practitioners not to always look for “bad’’ events involving the Akure team and blow it out of proportion but to always be objective in reports.
However, the management of ODSFA apologised to Mr Balogun for the events that happened on that day.
Mafo noted that the team manager of the Ibadan sports club was never beaten, but walked out of the stadium by himself.
He said that the pictures being paraded around the stadium was that of jubilating fans, noting that no match official was harassed.
