NFF Presiuident, Amaju Pinnick
By Our Reporter
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has cancelled the 2019/2020 football season in Nigeria and set September and October as the tentative dates for the start of a new season.
The Nationwide League One (NLO) and Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) which were yet to commence their 2019/2020 league season had been cancelled, while, the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) and the Nigeria National League (NNL) which were midway into the season had also been cancelled. respectively.
The NFF reached this resolution in an online meeting on Friday, July 10 which had in attendance the Chairpersons of all the National Leagues and the President of Nigeria Referees Association and the Executive Committee of the NFF.
However, the NPFL ended at week 25, the NFF decided to adopt the Points Per Game (PPG) table to be used to rank the teams in order to ensure sporting merit and supporting fairness.
With the PPG, Plateau United, Rivers United and Lobi Stars who are the top three teams on the table after the last matchday will be submitted to the Confederations of African Football (CAF) to represent Nigeria in the 2020/2021 CAF Inter-Club competitions
Plateau United and Rivers United will represent Nigeria at the CAF Champions League while Lobi Stars will compete in the CAF Confederation Cup alongside the defending champions of Aiteo cup, Kano Pillars
There will also be no promotion to or relegation from the NPFL and Nigeria National League (NNL)-second division for the 2019/2020 season.
Aiteo Cup which is the domestic cup in Nigeria which had only commenced at the state level has been aborted while the 2019 winners will be presented for the 2020/2021 CAF Confederation Cup. The Aiteo Cup 2020/2021 season will start from September/October 2020 to end May 2021.
Meanwhile, NFF opined that all tentative dates for the new season are subjective to the directives of the Federal Government in line with COVID-19 protocols.
It will be recalled that the LMC had claimed that 17 club’s officials have voted for Plateau United, Rivers United, Enyimba Fc and Kano Pillars to represent the country in the continent based on Point Per Game, PPG method.
