Benin striker Steve Mounie has recalled the harrowing experience his team went through in Sierra Leone after he and four other top stars were reported to have tested positive for Coronavirus and as such were ruled out of a decisive AFCON qualifier in Freetown.
Home team Sierra Leone need to win the match to qualify for the AFCON at the expense of Benin.
Mounie alleged the Leone tried to disqualify half of the Benin team using the Covid positive test as an excuse.
“Among the five players, three have already had Covid-19, including two from Clermont who contracted it a month ago,” he said.
“It was therefore impossible that they would have the virus again in such a short period of time since they have the antibodies.
“I already had Covid-19 a year ago, and the same, I still have the antibodies when I take blood tests. This is when we understood that it was a masquerade, an outright lie.”
He continued: “Among the 80 [people] on our delegation, the five players positive are starters, rather strangely.
“The tests were carried out in conditions absolutely not hygienic at a laboratory apparently not certified and the results were only reported just minutes before the pre-match warm-up when we are supposed to receive the results six hours before the game.”
The Group L clash has since been postponed till June by CAF.
But Mounie maintained the authorities need to come down hard on Sierra Leone after this charade.
“This kind of thing must not happen again! They have already won somewhere with this postponement,” he said.
“As long as the protocol is not respected and there is tampering, there must be more serious sanctions. It’s cheating, it’s not fair play.”
Remember Alex Iwuobi right? He tested positive to Covid-19 in Benin but when he got back to Nigeria the real Covid-19 test was conducted. You guys unlawfully disqualified him from the game in your bid to win by all means but had the guts to criticize Nigerian players for celebrating after scoring a goal.
This is a case of “what goes around comes back around”.
However, you guys are lucky CAF took that decision to reschedule the match rather than award the three points to Sierra Leone otherwise you guys would have been paid back in your very own mischievous coin.
Be careful what you do, cause the evil men do don’t live after them anymore, it lives with them as you just noticed that the evil you did to Nigeria came back to bite your behind.