Sports
Lmc Declares 2017/18 Npfl Season Concluded
Nigeria’s League Management Company (LMC) has declared the 2017/18 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season concluded at match-day 24.
This is after an emergency joint consultative meeting of the LMC, the 20 NPFL participating clubs and members of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Executive Committee resolved amongst many other far-reaching decisions to declare Lobi Stars as the country’s representative in next season’s CAF Champions League.
According to an LMC statement, the meeting was called against the backdrop of the adverse circumstances in the administration of football in the country, which resulted in the indefinite suspension of the resumption of the (NPFL) leading to huge fixture congestion for both league and cup competitions. The second of the six point resolution of the meeting was that none of the 20 NPFL clubs shall be relegated to the lower league.The meeting also agreed that four clubs shall be promoted from the Nigeria National League(NNL) to bring the number of the NPFL clubs for the 2018/19 season to 24.
“It was also resolved that the 2018/19 PFL season will commence in November 2018 with a total of 24 participating teams which shall be divided into two groups of 12 teams each. The 2018/2019 season commencing November 2018 will be played on 22 match days ending with a playoff to determine the winner by May 2019. Also resolved at the meeting was that three teams from each group (a total of six) will be relegated from the NPFL after the conclusion of the 2018/2019 season, while two teams will be promoted to the NPFL from the NNL 2019 season. This will allow the NPFL to revert to the normal structure of 20 teams as from the 2019/2020 season.”
“To achieve harmony in the overall national football calendar, the NFF endorsed the 2019 AITEO CUP to commence from September 2018 and to end on October 14, 2018. The NPFL teams would be seeded for the cup competition and the winner to represent Nigeria in the 2019 CAF Confederation Cup starting November 2019.
The decisions according to the communique signed by Shehu Dikko, the Chairman of LMC and NFF 2nd Vice President were reached to address “the situation which has made it practically impossible to meet up with the deadline for the submission of the list of the country’s representatives to CAF Inter-Club Competitions and also the need to commence the 2019 season in earnest to meet with the CAF new calendar that runs from August to May of the following year.”
“It became imperative for us to put into consideration the health of the NPFL players who would have to go through the rigours of tortuous travels, hectic games schedule and of course the club finances which has been thrown off balance by the unforeseen circumstances imposed by the crisis in football administration that led to the situation”, the LMC Chairman further clarified.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor