Re: 17/18 Season Nigerian Premier League thread
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2018 11:59 am
Please when is Rohr going to watch or scout in The Nigerian Premier League?
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https://www.aclsports.com/npfl-lobi-sta ... champions/Current Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) table toppers Lobi Stars are set to be declared champions of the 2017/18 league season after the league organisers, League Management Company (LMC) met with the association of the league’s Club owners on Thursday night.
According to multiple sources from the meeting, the league season is set to be ended abruptly with Lobi Stars, who have forty-three points from the twenty-four games played declared league champions and presented to CAF for next season’s Champions League.
Thursday’s meeting was geared towards finding a way to conclude the league and cup season in Nigeria, in time to meet the October 15 deadline of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for countries to complete registration for the 2018/19 continental competitions.
The NPFL went on break shortly before the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia with a resumption anticipated from July 18. However, Nigerian football woke to a fresh crisis shortly after the country’s elimination with a court judgement at the centre of a protracted crisis which left the football leagues in the balance for over a month.
An official announcement as regards Thursday’s agreement is being awaited from the league body (LMC) but Lobi Stars’s verified social media accounts have already tacitly revealed the results.
In a related development, since the league will be terminating with fourteen matches to play, it was reportedly agreed that none of the twenty teams will be relegated but four more teams will be promoted from the second tier after the conclusion of their own season. It is also being mooted that the twenty-four teams will then play in an abridged league format next season, with the commencement reportedly fixed for November, 2018.
With Nigeria left with just one slot each in the Champions League and Confederation Cup for next season, it is expected that Nigeria’s Cup competition; AITEO Cup will hold within a short period of time in order to terminate on or before October 15.
https://www.aclsports.com/nigerias-prem ... seriously/A few days ago, the League Management Company (LMC) met with league owners and stakeholders to announce that it will crown Lobi Stars of Makurdi the 2018 Champions with more than 10 games left to play.
As the LMC explained later, it was merely applying its codified rules in a situation where a major football political crisis effectively stifled the completion of the season. But the reality is that the league, in spite of recent sponsorship gains, continues to be mired in mediocrity.
How can you take a league seriously when each season, without failure, there is squabble on what the designated opening day would be. Stunningly, there are multiple postponements of the opening week because of one complaint or the other from club owners.
If it isn’t about not being prepared, it is about not completing registration of players, or about an upcoming holiday. These are weak excuses advanced by planless administrators and eventually accepted by league organisers.
Or is it possible to take seriously a league that threatens action but fails to act against teams that continually refuse to compensate its football labour for months? Certainly, such failure to act encourages the continued flouting of league rules.
This is the league that is run as the premier tier in a country that produces some of the best players in Africa, if not the world.
The current decision to cut the season short did not address compensation of football labour in such a season, nor did it explain how sponsors would be compensated. Why should sponsors care about supporting such a business in the future? The uncertainties are just too many. Yet that is what the Nigerian premier league is. There is no way to sugar coat it.
Thus, while one understands the LMC citing its rules in calling off the league in mid-season and also understand that it had little choice, it must still be stated that there are too many events in this league that leave much to be desired. The decision to cut the season short does not help the league’s image, citing rules or no rules.
If the league wishes to be taken seriously it must work out these poor logistics and improve its undesirable image that has helped, to some extent, to drive spectators to the bars where they watch better organised foreign leagues on television. Who would blame them? Should they stick to the local league simply based on patriotism when there are too many shenanigans and problems ruining the league?
For a start, the league should develop a firm and stable timeline that defines its season, matching it appropriately with the scheduling of the Confederation for African Football’s (CAF) club competitions in which Nigerian clubs participate. Then it must start to take firm action against clubs and administrators who continually violate league rules and/or fail to continually compensate football labour. Those actions can be the little change that builds a better image and ensures that the league is taken seriously.
Permit me to be Captain Obvious for a moment, because it seems you (and maybe other people) don't quite understand what just happened.wiseone wrote:Why are no teams being relegated? If they wanted to increase the number of top division teams they could still have relegated but simply promoted more teams.
Quotes taken from: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/09/npf ... -declares/Subsequently, 24 teams will compete in the NPFL next season in a two group-format of 12 clubs each while six clubs will be relegated. The 2018/19 season is billed to kick off in November.
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Sixteen clubs from the 20 NPFL teams voted for the league to end the league, four voted for it to continue.
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“The decision to award Lobi Stars the title wasn’t well thought of. It brings to fore the days of boardroom points which doesn’t speak well of football in this country,” he told Footballlive.ng. “A Super 4 or 6 should have been the yard stick for measuring the true champions of the league season. The decision is unethical.”