Daily Express
Kota Kinabalu: The decision to stop the 'friendly' match between Sabah selection and Cebagoo FC after only 30 minutes at the Institute Intan football ground on Wednesday was justified, according to Mohd Joh Hj Wid, who is the president of Cebagoo FC.
He called up Express Sports and explained his action in calling his players to leave the field after Reithudin Ag Emran was dismissed by the match official.
"I was made to understand that it was supposed to be a match to gauge the players from both sides and to have a player down so early in the match, I reckoned there was a need to stop the match to avoid any misunderstanding between the players that may lead to things boiling over."
He also disclosed that the match was arranged between him and Andrew Manjanggim who first contacted him for a match so that the State team could try out the two foreign players from Nigeria who came to ply their trade here.
"I decided to take up the offer as it will be a win-win situation for both teams to try out our respective players otherwise we would not have been there if we were not invited in the first place."
"Besides we were more than willing to give support to his request even though our team are hardly ready for a proper friendly match against the State team after only having just started our training recently."
"I was also surprised that David McCreery was not informed about the match early on.
As far as I know it was done by them on the whole arrangement apart from the match officials where I was asked to engage."
He said the match could have been cancelled if he knew the whole picture before hand.
He also disclosed that the official friendly match was supposed to be held only after both teams have finalised their squad for next season.
Towards the end he stressed that there was no bad blood between the two teams.
"I must say that we are like brothers and let's put the issue to rest and work together to achieve our respective goal next season."
