The currently suspended season of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) may be cancelled eventually, as 17 of the competing clubs voted at the weekend voted for the campaign to end with the current standings intact, megasportsarena.com reports.
Those that voted for the season to end are Kwara United, Kano Pillars, Katsina United, Jigawa Golden Stars, Adamawa United, Wikki Tourists, MFM, Sunshine Stars Enyimba, Warri Wolves and Abia Warriors. Others area Nasarawa United, FC IfenayiUbah, Dakkada, Heartland, Rivers United and Plateau United.
This, according to the executive secretary of Nigerian Club Owners Association, Alloy Chukwuma would help the country avoid health risks that could affect players, coaches, officials, fans and journalists, due to the prevailing war against COVYD-19,.
Chukwuemeka added in a statement issued at the end of a virtual meeting among the clubs that the current top three teams will go on to represent Nigeria in the continental competitions, thereby helping the country to keep up with the deadlines earlier imposed by Confederation of African Football (CAF) for next season.
He added that details of the session showed that only Rangers International of Enugu did not support cancellation of the season, as The Flying Antelopes instead recommended that a Super-6 play-off should be adopted for the league champion and the top three clubs to get CAF tickets, while Akwa United of Uyo and Lobi Stars of Makurdi abstained from voting.
Also during the deliberations of four options tables before the clubs by League Management Company (LMC) on how to end the season disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 17 clubs that called for cancelation of the halted campaign equally voted for lack of promotion of any team from the lower cadre and no relegations from the NPFL.
However, the format of ending the season based on with the final standings to be decided on a Points Per Game (PPG) basis did not categorically state anything about declaring Plateau United champions, though they are top of the standings.
At the point when the season was put on hold in March, the top three teams were Plateau United (49 points), Rivers United (45) and Lobi Stars (43 points) with most teams having 13 games to play, but Enyimba had five outstanding games to play on account of their longer presence in the continental terrain.
Using the PPG metric system, though, would see Enyimba, who are currently fifth with 36 points from 20 games, move up to second position on the final log, as The Peoples’ Elephants pooled 1.80 points, while Plateau United will get 1.96 points and Rivers United 1.80 in the top three placements.
The PPG criteria for determining the final league standings would be calculated by dividing a team’s total number of points by the number of the total number of games played by the team; which would end up seeing Plateau United and Enyimba qualify for the CAF Champions League while Rivers United will compete in the CAF Confederation Cup.
Nigeria’s other representative in the CAF Confederation Cup would then be Niger Tornadoes of Minna, who participated in the competition last season after finishing runners up to Kano Pillars in the Aiteo Cup, as Sai Masu Gida had already qualified for the CAF Champions League as then NPFL winners.
It was further gathered that the club owners’ vote, which held on Sunday, was called at the height of uncertainty about how to conclude the current campaign, which has been in abeyance since March 18 due to escalating number of casualties of the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
The LMC, had in consultation with the clubs, Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and Ministry of Sports, proposed four different scenarios for concluding the season, among which were chances of cancelling the season if it proved impossible to continue.
The other options were resuming the campaign when feasible with all twenty clubs; or deciding the title and continental places in a tournament for the top six teams, with the participating clubs to be determined using the points per game or weighted points per game criteria.
Before the meeting, the strong consensus among stakeholders prior to Sunday’s vote was that the campaign should be decided on the pitch, rather than ended prematurely, but comments by the chairman of Nigeria’s Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha suggested that the battle against the deadly respiratory disease is far from over, thereby casting serious doubt about the possibility of the country staging any sort of competitive sport for now.
