Nigeria professional league suffers indefinite Postponement
By Rasheed Adewuyi
Players in the Nigerian professional league (NFL) face months-long redundancy following the disbandment of the league management committee (LMC).
The 2022/ 23 NFL season, billed to kick off last month, has been indefinitely postponed by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to enable the soccer governing body to resolve its crisis with the LMC.
Sports Joust reliably gathered that the inability of the newly elected NFF board to set up an Interim League Management Committee (ILMC) to manage the competition, pending the time the clubs would be able to run it themselves, is one of the reasons the league may not start any time soon.
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar next month may also hinder the commencement of the NPFL as the players, coaches, fans, and administrators will join the rest of the world to watch the one-month-long soccer Fiesta.
In mid-September, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry Of Youths and Sports Development, Ismaila Abubakar, announced the withdrawal of the government’s recognition of the LMC, citing several unpleasant incidents regarding the management of the Football league. At the same time, the Federation government is also set to open a probe of the LMC operations in the past ten years.
In response to the ministry’s statement, LMC also said on its Twitter handle that the league body has the legal backing in the Football laws and regulations constituted in both the NFF and FIFA, including the corporate rules.
Rivers FC won the 2021/ 22 league, while Kano Pillars, Hartland FC, Katsina United, and Mountain of Fire FC suffered relegation to the lower division.
