By Victor Kanayo
The 2023/24 season of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) has suffered another postponement with no definite date for its kick-off.
This was revealed by the NPFL Chief Operating Officer Davidson Owumi in a statement made available to Heritage Times HT on Wednesday.
Latest League Pronouncement
Owumi said the need to have members focus on the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) which holds in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, after African Cup of Nations qualifier between the Super Eagles and Sao Tome and Principe necessitated the latest postponement.
He said, “We have everything set for the kickoff in Ibadan on Saturday but following representations from multiple stakeholders and more cogent is the complex logistics involved in having our Chairman and Clubs leadership travel from Ibadan to Uyo.
“The postponement has been communicated to the clubs so they can stand down travel plans already made.
“Note therefore that there will be no flag-off game this Saturday, September 9 as originally planned.”
He said a new kickoff date will be communicated in few days.
VAR In Nigeria
Meanwhile, the President of the Nigeria Referees Association, Sanni Zubair, has hinted that plans are ongoing to deploy video assistant referees in the Nigeria Professional Football League from the incoming season.
Zubair noted that the introduction of VAR will further enhance the performance of the referees, even now that most of the matches in the league will be streamed with newly procured AI cameras.
During the elective congress of the NRA which produced Zubairu as the president of the body in April, the president of the Nigeria Football Federation, Ibrahim Gusau, announced that the body will build VARs in selected regional stadiums across the country, a proposal the NRA is already anticipating its implementation.
