Hope rises as first round of 2023 NPFL season ends

The first round of the 2022/2023 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) season will end today with Week Nine fixtures slated for match venues across the country. If you are the only stranger in Jerusalem, you can ask why at week nine and not 38, I am talking about the end of the first round in a professional football league.

As most of us are aware, the 2023 NPFL season is another special one because those entrusted with the responsibility of organising the league on interim basis opted for the abridged format and the reason is quite obvious. As it is now the tradition in Nigerian football, nearly five months after the end of the 2022 NPFL season, nobody could tell when the next season would commence. Consequently, when the Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare, set up the Interim Management Committee (IMC) to replace the former league body, the only way to cover lost ground was to play an abridged league.

However, before its take off, the IMC faced numerous challenges as Nigerians sympathetic to the scrapped League Management Company (LMC), considered the IMC as an illegal body that shouldn’t be allowed to transact football business with anyone. Unfortunately, with identity and legitimacy crisis still staring it in the face, the IMC faced a bigger challenge when it proposed an abridged league format to the NPFL clubs. There was so much hullabaloo as the clubs who demanded a full season threatened to pull out of the league. Well, after enough persuasion and under-ground coercion, the clubs backed down for abridged league format to be adopted. So, that was how we got to where we are at the moment.

Although we are still far away from true professional football league, there are signs that the fire brigade approach being used by the IMC may eventually save the Nigeria topflight from total collapse. This is because if the ‘rush rush’ style is successful, maybe by next football season, we would be able to harmonise our league calendar with the rest of the leagues in the world. It is an open secret that past efforts aimed at harmonising the NPFL calendar with European football had proved abortive because we consistently started late. Now, we are beginning to see positive signals and this is indeed something that should gladdens one’s heart.

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However, ‘as e de sweet us’, it is ‘paining’ the clubs because they are being forced to make extraordinary sacrifices for calendar harmonisation to be achieved. Apart from financial losses and fear of relegation, the clubs had opposed the idea of an abridged season because they knew it would come with congested fixtures. Playing midweek matches is no doubt taking a huge toll on the clubs’ finances and exposing the players to mental and physical exhaustion. Those who have travelled around Nigeria on our collapsed roads know exactly what the clubs face sometimes thrice a week. Therefore, the clubs deserve sympathy because they are being tortured with congested fixtures.

But we all know that nothing good comes easy. It takes sacrifice to achieve most of the things that are important to us. Moreover, it is not possible to make omelette without breaking eggs. If at the end of the season, the calendar harmonisation is achieved, the 20 clubs that made the victory possible would inevitably be on the positive side of history.

Moreover, apart from the honour of being among the clubs whose sacrifices yielded the harmonised calendar which had eluded us for so many years, the eventual winner of the 2023 NPFL season would smile to the bank with an unprecedented N100m prize money. This is twice the ‘audio’ amount promised the clubs by the former league body. Past title winners are still waiting for their prize money from the defunct LMC. If you doubt, ask Rivers United who are the reigning champions of the NPFL.

It is, therefore, soothing that the Chairman of the IMC, Hon Gbenga Elegbeleye, has already assured the clubs that the N100m prize money promised them is real. Moreover, there is no reason to doubt the IMC because 3SC Ibadan who emerged winners of the inaugural edition of the NPFL-Dozy Mmobuosi pre-season  took home their N100m cash prize without acrimony.

Already, some of us are waiting to see the club that will survive this excruciating ‘fire brigade league’ to become the first to win the unprecedented N100m prize money. At the moment, the usual suspects, Enyimba, Plateau United, Rivers United and Akwa United are very much in the race for the NPFL Super 6 where the eventual winner would emerge but it is pre-season outsiders, Bendel Insurance and Lobi Stars that are topping their respective groups.

Without a doubt, Insurance who are unbeaten going into the final match of the first round have shocked bookmakers with their commanding performance. In eight matches, the Group A leaders have not tasted defeat but Enyimba who have picked two wins on the road this season will be a good test for them in the final match of the first stanza. And Group B table toppers, Lobi Stars may be seen as place-holders because of Rivers United’s outstanding matches, but nobody can deny the fact that the ‘Pride of Benue’ are heading to Super 6. Although beaten twice, they have recorded one away win and one away draw while winning the four home matches they’ve played so far.

So, the NPFL returnees, Insurance and last season survivors, Lobi Stars are right now on fire but we wait to see what will become of the two outstanding clubs in the second round. Insurance are called ‘Arsenals of Benin’ but they must keep their shape in order to avoid the football tragedy that is looming large for the London Gunners. It is disappointing to know that after raising the hopes of their teeming fans by clinching tightly to the top spot of the EPL for so many months, Arsenal have suddenly lost their momentum. The defending champions, Manchester City are right now Arsenal’s worst nightmare.