Nigerian clubs want change
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Nigerian clubs want change
Nigerian clubs want change
By Oluwashina Okeleji
BBC Sport, Lagos
Nigerian premier league clubs are calling for mid-week games to be scrapped.
Many clubs are saying that the long distances they have to cover by road is affecting the performance of their players and doesn't give them time to get injured players properly fit again.
They point out that these poor performances can lead to crowd violence, pointing to the example of last week when Shooting Stars fans attacked their own players after a 1-1 draw with Lobi Stars of Makurdi.
Following that game the General Manager of Shooting Stars, Adegboyega Onigbinde, added his voice to the mid-week critics.
He put his side's poor performance down to the crowded fixture list.
"We play games on weekends and mid-week which is a crazy idea, we have several injured players but the fact that we stay on the road for two weeks at a stretch, means we rarely have time to treat them properly," the former national team coach said.
It's just sheer ignorance, scrappy and a nasty way of killing our league football
Rangers' coach, Lawrence Akpokona.
"Our football is in chaos because the mid week games are affecting our players psychologically as well as physically, and therefore their performances on the pitch suffer."
Coach of Mighty Jets, Ben Duamlong is also calling for an immediate end to the mid-week games.
"You can't expect players to give their all after travelling nearly 5,000 kilometres on the road in just four days," he said.
"It's just sheer ignorance, scrappy and a nasty way of killing our league football," said Rangers' coach, Lawrence Akpokona.
However, the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) argues that the situation is nothing to worry about.
"We've already discussed this matter," argued Salisu Abubakar, Head of the Professional League department of the NFA.
"We know it's a tough arrangement because of the financial states of the clubs but we're only trying to make up for the time we didn't play during the Cup of Nations."
"We hope to have got things back to normal by mid-season and return to our normal weekend games.
"It's affecting us here in the FA but if we stretch the league games to June it will interfere with the continental games and we are making efforts so that doesn't happen," Abubakar explained.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 593123.stm
By Oluwashina Okeleji
BBC Sport, Lagos
Nigerian premier league clubs are calling for mid-week games to be scrapped.
Many clubs are saying that the long distances they have to cover by road is affecting the performance of their players and doesn't give them time to get injured players properly fit again.
They point out that these poor performances can lead to crowd violence, pointing to the example of last week when Shooting Stars fans attacked their own players after a 1-1 draw with Lobi Stars of Makurdi.
Following that game the General Manager of Shooting Stars, Adegboyega Onigbinde, added his voice to the mid-week critics.
He put his side's poor performance down to the crowded fixture list.
"We play games on weekends and mid-week which is a crazy idea, we have several injured players but the fact that we stay on the road for two weeks at a stretch, means we rarely have time to treat them properly," the former national team coach said.
It's just sheer ignorance, scrappy and a nasty way of killing our league football
Rangers' coach, Lawrence Akpokona.
"Our football is in chaos because the mid week games are affecting our players psychologically as well as physically, and therefore their performances on the pitch suffer."
Coach of Mighty Jets, Ben Duamlong is also calling for an immediate end to the mid-week games.
"You can't expect players to give their all after travelling nearly 5,000 kilometres on the road in just four days," he said.
"It's just sheer ignorance, scrappy and a nasty way of killing our league football," said Rangers' coach, Lawrence Akpokona.
However, the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) argues that the situation is nothing to worry about.
"We've already discussed this matter," argued Salisu Abubakar, Head of the Professional League department of the NFA.
"We know it's a tough arrangement because of the financial states of the clubs but we're only trying to make up for the time we didn't play during the Cup of Nations."
"We hope to have got things back to normal by mid-season and return to our normal weekend games.
"It's affecting us here in the FA but if we stretch the league games to June it will interfere with the continental games and we are making efforts so that doesn't happen," Abubakar explained.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 593123.stm
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