Siasia, others berate league management in Nigeria
By Saheed Ibrahim
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The 2018 season of the Nigerian professional football league that comes to an abrupt end has generated a lot of outcry and condemnation from ex football professionals, league teams’ coaches and league players.
The league was suspended in week 24 because of the 2018 World Cup that was held in Russia. The league was to resume after the world cup with week 25 match day on September 2 but failed to due to leadership crisis that rocked the Nigerian Football Federation.
In a bid to meet up with CAF’s October 15 deadline for submission of teams for its club competitions and May 2019 for the conclusion of the new season, the LMC released match days scheduled which was criticised by team owners. Sequel to this, the 2018 season of the NPFL was brought to an abrupt end with 14 matches left to play.
Lobi stars of Makurdi who were on top of the league with 43 points were declared champions of the season. This decision of the management of the NPFL did not go down well with ex internationals.
Samson Siasia, former Super Eagles player and coach berated the league management and charged them with unprofessionalism. He decried the way the league is being managed and charged the management to learn from the conduct of the English Premier League.
John Fashanu, an ex England international said that the League Management Company and club owners were ‘wrong’ to abruptly end the 2017/18 Nigeria Professional Football League season.
“It’s very wrong, it’s disappointing, it’s shocking and weird. There should have been alternatives which were not explored. The league is not only about the club chairmen; the players, the fans are equally important. Now, it seems we are only bothered about having teams play on the continent but nobody cares about how they performed. From records, performance has been appalling in recent years; if they are concerned about performance, they should have consulted far and wide. For me the decision is irrational.” He said.
The new 2019 season has been scheduled to kick start on January 13.