NFA Orders Postponement Of Premier League Matches

All the 30 matches scheduled for today in the 2010/2011 Nigeria Premier League season up to January 28 have been postponed on the orders of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA).

The competition organisers, the Nigeria Premier League (NPL), which announced this in Abuja, said the postponement was due to national team assignments.

Matches of weeks 11, 13 and 15 were earlier scheduled for today, January 19 and January 26 respectively.

NPL’s acting Executive Secretary, Mr Tunji Babalola, said in an interview in Abuja that the order from the NFA was necessary and that the NPL was bound to comply with it.

According to the correspondence received from the NFA, coaches of the senior national team, the Super Eagles and the national under-20 team, the Flying Eagles, are in need of many of the players in the Premier League.

“They have invited players from the various Premier League clubs in preparation for their different competitions and they need them now.

“The NFA therefore feels that the postponement will enable the coaches to have the full complement of the players in the camps for their preparation,” Babalola told newsmen.

He pointed out that the postponement was imperative to allow Nigerian league players to be actively involved in the build-up of the national teams.

Action would now be expected to resume in the Premier League as from January.