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By Abiodun Adewale.
The chairman of the Interim Management Committee of the Nigeria Professional Football League, Gbenga Elegbeleye, has confirmed that the 2022/23 league will kick-off on January 8, 2023 in an abridged format with the draws for the league is billed for December 28, The PUNCH reports.
The new kick off date was agreed upon during a meeting bewteen the IMC and clubs’ representatives in Abuja on Wednesday.
“Our conclusions at the meeting were simple, we are conducting the draws on 28 December then January 8 we start the league,” Elegbeleye told The PUNCH.
He also affirmed that the IMC will work out take off grants for the clubs, but dispelled reports that a fee had been agreed upon.
“We will give them a take-off grant, but the amount will be determined by our sponsors. We haven’t given a specific amount but we will try to raise some money for a start. All the stories about N500m, N25m or N10m are untrue.
“We just finished a pre-season tournament where we gave each team N10m and the winner, 3SC got N100m which we paid recently. So, we don’t make promises, we act,” Elegbeleye said.
Meanwhile, a club representative who spoke on condition of anonimity revealed that they rejected the initial proposal of December 28 in order to afford more time to prepare financially for the start of the NPFL league.
“The IMC proposed December 28, but it wasn’t going to work for us, so we reached a compromise about January 8,” the source said.