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By Abiodun Adewale.
Followers of the Nigeria Professional Football League are impatiently waiting for the restart of the country’s topflight, six months after the 2021/22 season ended.
The fan base of the league has been in the dark since the end of the previous season, no thanks to the uncertainty of a resumption date, which is unconnected to power of organising the league changing hands from the defunct League Management Company to the Interim Management Committee.
Since the inauguration of the IMC in October, the body said it had made moves to secure sponsorship as well as TV coverage for the league while also proposing an abridged league format to curb its arbitrary calendar.
However, close sources have affirmed multiple reports which fingered certain elements in the defunct league system for what hasn’t been a totally smooth takeoff by the IMC.
It had been rumoured that the league would commence on December 18, before another December 28 date surfaced, although the IMC didn’t confirm either dates.
The uncertainties among other rumours have sparked anxiety among supporters of different clubs in the league, who are fast losing hope about the possibility of watching their favourite teams anytime soon.
Chairman of the supporters’ club of Sunshine Stars FC of Akure, Tunde Adeboboye said, “It is as if we are not organised. We keep handling football matters like a country that is just starting. Imagine that some countries went on break before the World Cup and they already know when they will resume, but our case is different.”
A journalist and ardent follower of the NPFL, Olaoluwa Adeleye, decried how repeated delays have melted his interest in the league.
“The delay is nothing new as far as the NPFL is concerned. It is unfortunate that in 2022, we can’t really say this is when our season will start. And the implication of this is that we keep having issues with the arbitrary calendar and it makes things difficult. Sadly, it is a cycle, it will still happen again but we cannot continue like this.”
However, fans are hopeful that the wait will soon be over, as the Interim Management Committee of the league and club owners meet on Wednesday (today), in Abuja to perfect earlier interactions with the clubs on the new season’s roadmap.
A circular to the clubs signed by IMC’s head of operations, Davidson Owumi, read, “Sequel to our previous meeting and the need to finalise our conclusions, the IMC of the NPFL wishes to invite the twenty NPFL Clubs to an interactive meeting that will finalise the way forward for a smooth running of the 2022/23 season”
“We had thought the league would have resumed a long time before now, but we are stunned by the delays caused by dragging decisions over the format and a date. Previously we have heard about December 18, which has passed and now we have heard December 28. So, nothing has been certain and we don’t really know anything until the end of the meeting between the IMC and club owners,” Adeboboye said.
“Very curious and anxiously waiting for the next season to start hopefully next week 28 December according to speculations around,” said Mukaila Aminu, an ardent supporter of Wikki Tourists FC.
As the IMC and NPFL club owners meet in Abuja, the fans are hopeful that conditions for the restart of the league will become clearer.