NPFL resumption date shifted for ‘continental clubs’

The earlier announced December 6 resumption date for 2020/2021 Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL, has been moved forward for the four clubs representing Nigeria in this year’s CAF inter-club competitions to conclude their preliminary round matches.

Plateau United and Enyimba are competing in the CAF Champions League while Rivers United and Kano Pillars are campaigning for honours in the Confederation Cup.

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After miserable outings in the first leg of the preliminary round of matches, the quarter is getting set for the return leg matches this weekend.

For the past eight months, beginning from March, there have been no on field football activities as all leagues in the country were put on hold due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

However, following the decision by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to lift restrictions on football and other contact sports, the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, in October accepted the proposal by the League Management Company, LMC to kick-off the 2020/2021 NPFL season.

Consequently, the LMC went ahead to publish part of the fixtures for the new season just as it was reported widely that the league organisers had settled for December 6 for resumption of the new season.

LMC has since disowned the resumption date saying it never officially communicated when the new season would resume.

However, a reliable source who confided in our reporter said the league organisers have decided to shift the kick-off date to enable the ‘continental clubs’ conclude their preliminary round matches in the ongoing CAF Competitions.

“The league is not going to resume this weekend because of the continental clubs. LMC wants to allow the clubs to round up their preliminary round matches this weekend.

“We want all the clubs to start at the same time. So the league will resume after the four clubs in the continent have played their matches this weekend.

“We are also going to hold our AGM early next week to tidy up this. The league cannot commence without the AGM,” said our source.

The action by the LMC is not coming as a surprise to many, especially those who had received the initial kick-off date with a pinch of salt.

When the December 6 resumption date was publicised, many were unenthusiastic as they said the LMC didn’t appear set to re-open the 2020/2021 NPFL season.