NPL, Broke, Shelves Midweek Matches

The Nigeria Premier League (NPL), has decided to shelve midweek games billed for Wednesday because they do not have the necessary funds.

Tunji Babalola, acting Executive Secretary of the league body, said that there was no money to pay the indemnities of match officials.

“We should have played the postponed Week Three matches this Wednesday but there is no money and we cannot subject the clubs to pay another match indemnity after paying the one for last week,” Babalola told Goal.com.

“This should have been the best time to play the last postponed games but there is nothing we can do except to try and see whether we can still play the games in no distant future,” he said.

The Nigeria Premier League enters Week Eight this weekend and there has been financial scandal in the league body, which forced all home teams to pay the match indemnities to referees on behalf of the NPL last weekend.

Babalola promised that the NPL would look for funds to pay the match officials this weekend.

“We hope to get some money to be able to pay the match indemnities this weekend. It is not good that clubs will pay the indemnities because we want to maintain sanity in the league.

“As much as possible, we want to make the clubs have less contact with match officials and one way we can do it is for the NPL to continue to pay the indemnities,” Babalola said.

Meanwhile, coaches of Sharks FC of Port Harcourt and Akwa United of Uyo have pleaded with the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) to re-adjust the ongoing 2012 league match fixtures.

They made the appeal last Saturday in Port Harcourt after visiting Akwa United held their hosts to a goalless draw at the Sharks Stadium.

Sharks coach, John Obuh, said the current fixtures, which made clubs to play twice a week, were becoming strenuous.

Obuh said the development was affecting the fortunes of his team in the six-week-old competition.

“We planned to win this game but luck was not on our side today. It was a good game, in spite of the score line,’’ he said.

His Akwa United counterpart, Solomon Ogbeide, corroborated Obuh’s appeal, saying,“the fixtures are becoming strenuous on clubs.

“We appeal to the league organisers, the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), to make the fixtures lighter for clubs’’.

Ogbeide said his team was not ambitious to win the league because they were new comers to the Nigerian premiership.

He said, however, that if they eventually win the league, they would be happy.

The match was played behind closed doors because of the sanctions imposed on Sharks by the board of the Nigeria Premier League (NPL).

The order followed unruly behaviour by the club’s supporters during a match against Warri Wolves in week four.