Justina Akanbi

Reactions have trailed the voting conducted by the Club Owners Association of Nigerian, COAN, on Sunday, to end the 2019/2020 Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL season with the PPG while no team would be relegated.

On Sunday night, 17 out of the 20 club owners voted to end the league via Point Per Match, PPG system.

The voting and decision came weeks after League Management Company Chairman;  Malam Shehu Dikko announced that the Nigeria Football Federation might adopt a Super Six Playoff to end the league.

But in a twist of the event Sunday, the club owners met and voted to end the league as well as declaring that there would be no promoted or relegated teams from or to the NPFL.

In a swift reaction, one of the clubs which abstained from the meeting, Lobi Starts of Markudi have alleged that the voting process was manipulated by the leadership of COAN to achieve a predetermined plan.

In a very strongly worded long press release on Monday signed by the Club’s media officer, Austin Tyowua, the club dissociated itself from the purported election and questioned its credibility as well as the result therefrom

The club wondered how information for a meeting with such voting agenda to end the league could be communicated to the club owners same the day the meeting and voting took place.

“To buttress our conviction that the result of the voting was premeditated;

“How can you explain a situation where 18 out of 20 of the NPFL Clubs, wholly owned and funded by State Governments with decision-making boards and a decision as crucial as voting on ending the league will be communicated to Club chairmen same day on a non-working day and the voting the process was still expected to take place the same day as if the Chairmen are not accountable to other authorities. Another pointer that laid validity to the strong suspicion of premeditation of the entire process,” the club said.

Lobi further called on the minister of sports and the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF to disregard the outcome of the election and consider the situation on merit.

“We hereby call on the Minister of Sports and The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to disregard the charade displayed by the club owners in an attempt to perpetrate the PPG illegality, look at the merit of the matter and make sure a fair and conventional option is arrived at.”

The Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) will resume in July, with the League Management Company (LMC) getting the go-ahead to restart the season and jettisoning the proposed Point Per Game (PPG).

The Gleamer Online News gathered authoritatively that the NPFL would go ahead with the teams playing all remaining matches including those with outstanding games before the suspension of the league due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the source did not indicate how the matches would be played, especially taking into consideration the Federal Government’s the interstate travel ban, he nonetheless said the position of the Youth and Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, is that the NPFL will resume next month while all other leagues; the Nigeria National League, the Nigeria Nationwide League and the women’s league has been officially declared ended.

It was gathered that the Nigeria Club Owners had proposed for the NPFL to end with the PPG while no team would be relegated but our a source in the ministry said the minister was not favorably disposed to the idea, considering the litigations that had dogged the French Ligue after the country’s football body announced the abrupt conclusion of the season.

It was also not clear whether the teams will gather in a city to play the proposed Super 6 initially propounded by the chairman of the LMC, Mallam Shehu Dikko. It would be recalled that Benin, Edo State capital was mooted as a venue for the proposed Super 6, raising concern how the league body would cope with the influx of players and officials of all the six teams in the face of the rampaging coronavirus pandemic.

However, Plateau United Football Club may be declared winners of the 2019/2020 Nigeria Professional Football League season after 17 chairmen of clubs voted that the season should come to a premature end due to the Coronavirus pandemic ravaging the world.

It seems likely that Plateau United the 2017 NPFL Champions will be named winners of the 2019/2020 season without officially winning the title.

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