The long-awaited 2018/19 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) is set to resume following a directive from the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to the League Management Company (LMC) on Friday.
The football governing body in the country directed the LMC to ensure that the 2019 campaign kicks off latest January 13, 2019.
This much was revealed through a statement from the NFF Emergency Committee, after their meeting on Friday.
“Following the directive to the eight clubs [that] qualified for the Super 8 Tournament of the Nigeria National League to proceed to Aba for the tournament, we received letters from clubs to the effect that they presently do not have enough players to prosecute the tournament. Apparently, most Clubs in the country’s Leagues sign a good number of their players for only one season. These personnel appear to have floated to other Clubs in search of greener pastures,” the statement read.
With the delay in ratifying the status of promoted teams from the NNL, which has seen its Super 8 postponed twice now following complaints from the teams involved that they don’t have personnel for the tournament, the statement also said that affected clubs have two weeks to “beef up their playing personnel” as the Super 8 must take place not “later than January 3.”
It is in view of this that the NFF has directed the LMC to ensure that the NPFL kicks off its new season on January 13.
“The League Management Company (LMC) is hereby advised to ensure the commencement of the NPFL 2018/2019 Season, not later than 13th January 2019,” the statement concludes.
Meanwhile, of eight teams expected to have converged in Aba for the Super 8, only three teams showed up and will receive a compensation fee of two million naira each.
