PH
The League Management Company (LMC) has confirmed the 2015/16 season of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) will kick off on February 21.
The new season was initially scheduled to start on January 30, but was postponed due to the CHAN tournament that will kick off on Saturday and run till February 7 in Rwanda.
While announcing a comprehensive calendar for the new season, LMC said the premier league now has a start date of February 21 for the regular season, and will end on October 2.
The body said two rounds of Super Four tournament will be played in Kaduna and Uyo to enable the four clubs on the continent prepare for the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup.
The first round of the NPFL Super 4 will hold in Kaduna from January 20-24 while the second round will be played in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State from February 1-5.
“The rationale for the two rounds of NPFL Super 4 is to get our clubs that will be playing on the continent to play at least six competitive games from the two tournaments to sufficiently prime them to reasonable match fitness. The tournament will as usual be played on a round-robin structure,” LMC explained.
The preliminary rounds of the CAF Club competitions will hold on the weekend of February 12-14.
On the implementation of the club licensing requirements, the LMC said that all clubs have been given a cut-off date of February 10 to ensure the settlement of any overdue payments to players and coaches arising from the 2014/15 season and or provide an acceptable financial guarantee instruments to secure the payments as well as tentative payment plan from the clubs proprietors.
LMC, as the NFF First Instant Body (FIB) on the management and operations of club licensing in Nigeria has also set a deadline of February 15, for the issuance of the NFF Club licensing Certificate as directed by CAF to clubs that have met the minimum criteria for participation in the 2016 NPFL season.
Two clubs in Lagos – Ikorodu United and MFM FC will be playing in the premier league when it kicks off.
The LMC is expected to release the match schedules in the coming weeks.
