Ajax Cape Town anger

Officials of South African club Ajax Cape Town are up in arms after the failure of Nigeria's Katsina United to pitch for their CAF Cup second round, second leg match in Cape Town.

Katsina's no-show is sure to afford the South Africans progress into the quarter-finals in September.

While most clubs would seemingly be pleased to get a walkover, Ajax are not, as they have lost out financially.

The club faces the loss of around US$20,000 in expenses, including television rights from a pan-African channel who were scheduled to broadcast Sunday's game live around the continent.

The club are to write to CAF to seek damages from the Nigerians, who failed to board their plane in Lagos and now face a three-year ban from CAF and a mandatory fine of US$1,500.

All change

The match has been under a cloud all week since news first emerged from Kaduna that the Borno State side were struggling to raise the money to pay for their air fares to Cape Town.

This has really been unsatisfactory. We're not going to let this matter rest

  Rob Moore, Ajax chairman

The team had been scheduled to arrive in Johannesburg on Saturday and then travel down to Cape Town by air, a further two-hour journey.

But the Nigerian Football Association told Ajax officials that the team would only be leaving on Sunday morning, arriving in Johannesburg at 1pm and then transferring to a Cape Town flight that would put them in the Mother City at 5pm.

As a result, Ajax changed the kick off time of Sunday's game from 3pm to 7pm.

On Sunday morning, however, a further call to the NFA in Lagos revealed that Katsina had failed to get on the plane and led to the cancellation of the game.

Ajax into quarter-finals

Ajax now await ratification of their progress to the last eight from CAF but this is expected to be a mere formality.

The first leg had been played in Kaduna earlier this month with the South Africans gaining a credible 2-2 draw against the side that came within minutes of winning the Nigerian Super League last year.

Ajax's travelling party were forced to take a 12-hour bus journey back from Kaduna to Lagos in order to catch their return flight home.

"This has really been unsatisfactory," said club chairman Rob Moore.

"We are not going to let this matter rest."

Katsina's failure to turn up is a further blow to the reputation of former Nigerian Football Association chairman Colonel Abdulmuni Aminu, who founded the club in 1994 and had been their patron and financial backer.

Aminu is also the chairman of the West African Football Union but has played little part in footballing affairs since he was toppled from the NFA chairmanship two years ago.