Peter Day Atanley
The 2023-2024 Nigeria professional football league (Npfl) has been postponed by the league management committee for two weeks.
This shifting of the resumption comes after the first consultative board meeting with club owners on the 3rd of August 2023. During the meeting, the board, led by Mr Gbenga Elegbeleye conveyed the latest development to the various stakeholders and club owners present.
During the meeting it was stipulated that the abridged league will be divided into two groups of 10 clubs in each group. These two groups will make up the 20 teams that will play each other in an 18 matchday season or a linear format of all the 20 clubs playing home and away in a 38 matchday season.
The draw which was supposed to be held on the 17th of August has been shifted to 24th of August 2023.
The reason for the postponement was to allow the organizers enough time for adequate preparation. And that most clubs should have settled their players and staff.
Another major reason for the postponement given by the board during the meeting is to considered the clubs representing the league on the continent in the CAF Champions League qualifiers, such as Remo Stars and Enyimba FC, facing Ghanaian champions Madeama and Libya's Al Ahly Benghazi respectively, from this weekend on the 20th and the next on the 26th of August.
Speaking to news reporters after the meeting the Chairman of the newly promoted NPL team Sporting Lagos, Mr. Godwin Enakhena, said that the decisions made at the time, alongside the streaming arrangements of Propel Africa, impacted the League's resumption time.
"It is better to start later when well prepared than to start haphazardly," Godwin told BSN Sports on a call.
"The Club Owners were presented in Abuja with both options presented before us for running the new league season, and we all indicated our choices.
"Propel Sports Africa who are League partners also needed to secure enough bandwidth to host the League games on their streaming platforms, so, the stakeholders were all carried along in the overall decisions," he added.
The newly proposed resumption date for the League is reported to be the 9th of September, 2023.
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