November 23, (THEWILL) – The new Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season will begin before the end of the year, according to Gbenga Elegbeleye, the chairman of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the league.
The Nigerian top division has been on break since July. The Sports Ministry established the IMC in October to take over the organisation of the NPFL from the League Management Company (LMC). At a meeting of the IMC and 20 NPFL clubs in Abuja, Elegbeleye stated that the premier league’s start date would be announced following clearance from the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Elegbeleye said: “I want to assure Nigerians that the 2022/2023 NPFL will start this year. We (IMC and representatives of 20 NPFL Clubs) have agreed on the date, but we can’t tell the public without approval from the NFF. Once the issue of club licencing and all the participating clubs present standard pitches good enough to be shown on television, the league will kick off.
“We have a number of sponsors already that will enable the league to be shown on TV. However, we still need to brief the NFF on sponsorship. What I can assure everyone is that this season’s league will be better than what we are used to.”
The IMC has been pressing clubs to finish their club licencing, but since the deadline has passed and the upcoming NPFL season will reportedly be played in an abbreviated format, it is unclear how many clubs have complied.
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Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
