Biashara United Mara has denied allegations by a section of fans that they could be involved in match- fixing scandal after the club failed to travel to Libya for the return leg of the CAF Confederation Cup first round against Al Ahli Tripoli.
The Tanzanian side was unable to travel to Tripoli with a healthy 2-0 advantage due to security reasons that saw the airline that they had booked pulling out of the trip.
Biashara also failed to secure airspace permits that would have allowed a charter flight secured from Air Tanzania to fly and land in Libya for the Sunday game.
The allegations that the club officials received bribes for team not to travel have been doing rounds in the social media, but Biashara United have now dismissed the same terming them as shallow talks aimed at tarnishing the club’s image.
“We are disturbed by reports doing rounds on social media that the management of the team received bribes from Al Ahli Tripoli so that they can derail our team travel plans to Libya from the return leg match,” reads part of the club statement as translated from Kiswahili.
“The reports are aimed at tarnishing the club’s image and create misunderstandings between the management, players and fans. We ask the public to dismiss such information and those spreading the hate to stop it immediately.”
The match between the two sides was set to be played at Benina Martyrs Stadium but it failed, forcing match officials to acknowledge the absence of Biashara United, and declared the Tanzanian Premier League side forfeit.
However, Biashara had already written to Confederation of African Football (CAF) asking them to shift the game to Tuesday to allow the team travel to Libya.
The team is now waiting for CAF to respond to their request as they look to advance to the next round of this season’s Confederation Cup.
The winner of the match will progress to the next round where they will face Mali’s Stade Malien who were relegated to Confederation Cup.
