Nigeria Professional Football League side, Lobi Stars of Makurdi, Benue State have accused the Club Owners Association of Nigerian and the League Management Company (LMC) of colluding with each other to anoint league defending champions, Enyimba of Aba as one of the CAF Champions League representative, Bestchoicesports.com.ng reports
The club made the accusation in a release yesterday. The release titled; “Lobi Stars F.C insists on illegality of PPG; reject the voting process of Club Owners” and signed by the club’s media officer, Austin Tyowua, alleged that the adoption of Point Per Game (PPG) as the only solution to end the league was an aberration.
The club noted that the reason adduced for arriving at the adoption of PPG as the only solution to end the league fall short of best practices and accused the LMC and the COAN of working together to pacify some clubs.
“Recall, some few weeks ago, the Chairman of LMC Mallam Shehu Dikko on a channels TV show communicated adoption of the PPG mechanism which was unsuccessfully tested in French Lique 1.
A French court has already declared it illegal after Olympic Lyonnais and other affected clubs took the matter for judicial interpretation.
“The LMC among other means of trying to achieve the illegality have to play on the sensibilities of the four Clubs in the drop zone by first cancelling relegation to NNL.
“Incidentally, the chairman of the Club Owners is a beneficiary of the no relegation arrangement which makes it convenient for LMC to go ahead with the unpopular intention with less pressure as he is conveniently doing the hatchet job for LMC other than standing for the conventional truth.
“Plateau United that is on top of the table had nothing to lose with or without PPG, the other clubs that have nothing to gain or lose with or without PPG could easily compromise for pecuniary gains,” it said.
To buttress their conviction that the result of the voting was premeditated, the club stressed that in the introductory part of the release leading to the voting process, signed by the executive secretary of Club Owners Association, Mr. Alloy Chukwuemeka on behalf of the Chairman, Barr Isaac Danladi, had clearly stated that, the government is not contemplating return to sporting activities any time soon, as such, the option of Super 6 was already eliminated.
Meanwhile, the Football Club Owners Association of Nigeria (Club Owners) has reacted to Lobi Stars’ objection to the alleged decision to end the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season with the Point Per Game (PPG) model.
In a statement signed by the Executive Secretary of the Club Owners, Alloy Chukwuemeka, the Club Owners lampooned Lobi Stars for leaking the online voting process, stressing the club risk sanction for its action.
“Those who challenged the PPG at the court in France were ruled against, thus confirming the genuineness and authenticity of the process in taking such decisions,” he said.
He added that Lobi Stars were crying foul of the PPG because it did not favour them to get a continental ticket.