FIFA President, Gianni Infantino,
By Our Reporter
The management of Rivers United FC of Port-Harcourt has threaten to petition the world football governing body (FIFA), the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) over the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the League Management Company (LMC) quest to rigged them off of their second position on the 2019/2020 league table.
In a press statement by the General Manager of the club, Sir Dr. Okey Kpalukwu, said the club is perplexed with the NPFL table being circulated around the media space where Plateau United, Enyimba and Rivers United were placed first, second and third positions respectively.
Corereporters reported that the Port-Harcourt based NPFL side said the table can only exist in the imagination of those peddling it. It further noted that points are the first basis of separating teams, followed by goal difference before head to head and if that be the case there is no way Enyimba can be in second positions on the table while they have the same points and superior goals.
LMC Chairman, Shehu Dikko
The statement read in full.
Our attention has been drawn to a purported Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) table being circulated around the media space wherein Plateau United, Enyimba and Rivers United were placed first, second and third respectively.
According to the purported table, while Rivers United and Enyimba were tied on the same number of points, a totally strange/ inconclusive head-to-head consideration affected by the same force majeure was used to place Enyimba in the second position.
Nothing can be further from the truth; as such consideration can only exist in the imagination of those peddling the fake table.
For emphasis and to inform discerning members of the public, what is internationally known and even in the rule books of League Management Company (LMC) of Nigeria is that points are the first basis of separating teams, followed by goal difference before head to head.
The Points Per Game (PPG) model adopted by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and LMC is a straightforward co-efficient of dividing the total number of points with the total number of matches played as when the league was suspended in order to guarantee fairness to clubs that played less number of matches. With the application of PPG , all teams are now measured equally erasing the scenario of whether or not any club played a higher number of matches than the other.
It also follows therefore that in separating the tie by goal difference, is to divide the number of goals scored by the number of matches played to arrive at a coefficient.
Based on the above, it is obvious that Rivers United is the second-placed team and no amount of false narratives will deceive those who should know.
We have already made our position known to the NFF and LMC and we expect that justice will be served without fear or favour.
On a final note, we may be compelled to explore all legitimate means available, including formal petitions to FIFA, CAF, and CAS to ventilate our grievances and press for justice.
