A meeting of the NPFL club owners and League Management Company ended on Thursday night with the clubs agreeing to end the league after matchday 24 reports www.footbllive.ng
The implication is that Lobi Stars that led the park after matchday 24 will be crowned league champions and will represent Nigeria in the CAF Champions League subject to ratification by the NFF.
Consequently, no club will be relegated.
Four clubs will be promoted from the NNL to form a 24-team 2018/19 season which will be abridged into two groups of 12 each.
The 2018/19 season is billed to kick off in November.
Meanwhile, the Aiteo Cup begins on September 5 with the rookies stage and will resort to group format at the round of 16.
This ‘doctrine of necessity’ became imperative to meet the October 15 deadline given by CAF for the submission of representatives for 2019 club competitions.
Footballlive.ng scooped that the NFF had used their contacts at the continental body to get a five day extension for Nigeria, meaning the nation had till October 20 to produce CAF club competition representatives.
That wasn’t still ample to play the entire 38 matchdays of the NPFL and conclude the Aiteo Cup.
The next option wss to finish the league and have the top two represent the nation in the two club competitions but the snag was that NFF was under obligations to meet the terms of their agreement with Aiteo and ensure the 2018 edition of Aiteo Cup was held.
Aiteo Cup winners will then represent Nigeria in the CAF Confederation Cup.
The exigent decisions became imperative after the NFF leadership crisis put the league on hold leaving organisers with a race against time to meet the CAF deadline.
