In any sporting event, victories are supposed to be earned on the field of play. However, based on laid down rules and regulations, some victories can be attained by the instrumentality of boardroom points. In football, boardroom points are awarded with three goals.
For those who don’t know, boardroom points are awarded as a punitive measure after a petition must have been filed against an opposing team. And in such a situation, some gentlemen usually sit in a cosy boardroom to decide the fate of the teams that are involved.
The Nigerian Professional football is not new to controversies over boardroom decisions. In the past, boardroom points became so rampant that in September 2013, the League Management Company (LMC) decided during one of its meetings that the award of boardroom points, which was the major cause or reason for the violence and agitations be suspended for the remaining seven rounds of matches in the 2012/2013 season.
Consequently, for quite some time, there was relative peace in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) because there were no more indiscriminate awards of controversial boardroom points.
However, there was a relapse in the 2021 NPFL season. The boardroom decision taken by the Nigeria Football Federation’s Organising and Disciplinary Committee in favour of Rivers United is said to have made nonsense of an otherwise successful league season.
The NPFL had witnessed a hat-trick of inconclusive seasons with the outbreak of the COVID -19 pandemic accounting for the inconclusiveness of the 2019/2020 season. Therefore, it was indeed heart-warming to see the 2021 season run its full course of 38 matches with Akwa United winning their maiden title in grand style. However, every other achievement recorded in the season was tainted by that singular decision to award boardroom points on the final day of the season.
It will be recalled that on July 26, Rivers United wrote a petition against Jigawa Golden Stars, accusing them of fielding Richard Christopher who had accumulated five yellow cards and was ineligible to be featured in their week 34 fixture which ended 2-1 against them.
However, on July 31, the League Management Company dismissed Rivers United’s protest. The league organisers said Jigawa Stars didn’t ‘intentionally’ field Christopher in the week 34 match. LMC, therefore, upheld the result of the match. Piqued by the decision taken by the LMC, Rivers United then approached the NFF O&D committee for justice.
Although Rivers United got the justice they desperately wanted, the timing of the decision by the committee was anything but perfect. It was on August 5, the day all the clubs were playing the final round of matches that would determine the fate of continental-chasing clubs as well as those battling to escape relegation, that the O&D committee announced its decision to award three boardroom points to Rivers United.
Based on the final day results, there was wild celebration in Ilorin after Kwara United thrashed Katsina United 3-0 to roll into third position from a distant sixth position on the table.
Meanwhile, Rivers United on 63 points had lost 1-0 at Sunshine Stars and were languishing in the sixth position because Enyimba defeated Dakkada 3-1 to go second after the duo of Nasarawa United (65 points) and Pillars (64) ended ahead of the ‘Pride of Rivers’ despite their losses at Abia Warriors and Heartland respectively.
However, the wild celebration in Ilorin was abruptly stopped when it dawned on the ‘Áfonja Warriors’ that Rivers United had benefited from boardroom points to move to second position on superior goal difference, forcing Enyimba down to the third position. The ‘Peoples elephants, therefore, snatched the continental ticket Kwara United was busy celebrating.
Jigawa Stars who were already relegated decided not to appeal the O&D decision but Kwara approached the NFF Appeals Committee for redress but the arbitration body headed by Barrister Ibrahim Eddy Mark, a top official of Rivers State, upheld the earlier decision by its sister committee.
What was then left for Kwara United was to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS). However, since nothing new has been heard about the threat from the aggrieved warriors from Ilorin, I believe wise counsel prevailed. It is an open secret that seeking for justice at that level is also capital intensive.
As it is, Rivers United are already warming up to represent Nigeria in the prestigious CAF Champions League but Kwara United are left to lick the wounds inflicted on them for no fault of theirs.
The scenario above aptly captures how a hitherto smooth sailing NPFL season was bungled on the final day by delayed justice. Most football stakeholders are still asking why the O&D committee waited until the final day to take such a critical decision.
I, therefore, submit that the league organisers must urgently find an alternative to the ‘evil’ called boardroom points. In its place, other punitive measures should be considered.
For now, I say weep no more Kwara United.
