Nigeria League’s Kickoff Date Uncertain

The new Nigeria
league season will no longer begin on January 31 with a new date now likely to be after the 2016 CHAN in Rwanda.
The CHAN will parade players who feature in their home leagues and it will start on Saturday and end on February 7 with Nigeria making their second appearance in Rwanda.
Officials also said the pre-season Super 4 will now be staged between January 20 and 24, but a venue has yet to be decided as several state governments including that of Akwa Ibom have indicated interests to bankroll the competition.
Cash crunch affecting the clubs, who are mostly owned by state governments, is one of the reasons behind a shift in the January 31 big kick-off.
A cross section of players in the country’s premier league has also kicked against the original start date for the competition, arguing that clubs clear outstanding payments to them as well as putting in place mechanisms for clubs not to again fail to pay them as and when due.
Enyimba are defending champions after they won their seventh championship in November.
Bayelsa United , FC Taraba, Sharks and Kwara United have been relegated, while Niger Tornadoes, Plateau United, MFM FC and Ikorodu FC won promotion from the lower Nigeria National League (NNL).