Kano Pillars’ Kabiru Umar has blamed harsh refereeing in both legs of Champions League preliminary round tie for his team’s shock elimination at the hands of AS Vita.

Masu Gida managed only to scrape a 2-1 win against Congolese outfit AS Vita in Kano yesterday, which meant early ouster from Champions League as they lost 3-1 in Kinshasa last week.

“It was the combination of hard luck and referee’s biased officiating that saw us being eliminated from the competition despite our spirited fight to stay alive”, Umar told Supersport. “We least expected that we’ll be booted out at the primary stage of the competition by no less opposition than AS Vita Club even going in front here in Kano was a rude shock.

We had clear three penalty appeals but the referee waived it aside coupled with several missed chances at goal. “That’s football for you, you either win or lose and suffer the humiliation of elimination. I think we lost the battle in Kinshasa, DR Congo when we went down 1-3 courtesy of referee’s unfair treatment. We wanted to win, we wanted to offer Nigerians the best representation if not clinch the title but that didn’t happen.”