Emma Njoku
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has put a stamp to the Points Per Game (PPG) criteria used by the League Management Committee to determine the final league table for the 2019/20 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) season.
The season was suspended on March 18, 2020, indefinitely, and, recently, the clubs, after a majority vote, agreed to end the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with most of the teams having as many as 13 games to play.
The NFF Football Committee, at an online meeting, yesterday, adopted the PPG criteria to rank the teams “in order to ensure sporting merit and fairness.”
According to the communique issued after the meeting, the names of the top three clubs on the NPFL final PPG table as at Matchday 25 shall be submitted to CAF, to represent Nigeria in the 2020/2021 CAF Inter-Club competitions (two slots for CAF Champions League and one slot for CAF Confederation Cup).
With the PPG criteria, Plateau United, Enyimba and Rivers United who emerged top three on the table in that order, will fly the country’s flag in the continental competitions. While Plateau United and Enyimba will represent Nigeria in the next CAF Champions League, Rivers United will vie for honours in the CAF Confederations Cup.
Winners of the 2019 AITEO FA Cup, Kano Pillars will be handed Nigeria’s second ticket to the continent’s second tier club competition after this year’s Federation Cup championship was aborted at yesterday’s meeting.
Also aborted was the 2019/2020 Nigeria Women’s Football League (NWFL) season, while 2020/2021 women’s league season would start from September/October 2020 and end May 2021, subject to the full reopening of the country and the approval of the health authorities.