New rule forbids state govt, individuals from owning more than one club in NPFL

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has proposed to bar Holding Company, State governments and individuals from owning more than one club in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) or other leagues from the coming season.

This was one of the resolutions at the NFF executive committee meeting that held at the Federation’s Secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday.

The decision would imply that Abia State will have to either merge Enyimba football club and Abia Warriors or sell off one of them to compete in the Nigerian league.

Also resolved at the meeting was the arrangement of two high-level friendly matches for the Super Eagles ahead of the team’s World Cup qualifiers against Cameroon later in the year.

While the friendly against Senegal has been confirmed, there’s been speculations in some quarters that the other friendly match will be against Democratic Republic of Congo. Ghost is however, not confirmed.

According to the communique of the meeting, contained in an NFF press release, the NFF also resolved to give full support to president Amaju Pinnick in his quest for a seat on the Confederation of African Football executive committee among other things.

The communique of the NFF executive committee meeting is as follows:

COMMUNIQUE OF MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF NIGERIA FOOTBALL FEDERATION WHICH HELD AT THE NFF SECRETARIAT, ABUJA ON TUESDAY, 7TH FEBRUARY, 2017

The Executive Committee of Nigeria Football Federation held a meeting at the NFF Secretariat, Abuja on Tuesday, 7th February, 2017 to discuss important issues regarding Nigeria football and resolved as follows:

1) Executive Committee observed a one-minute silence in honour of the Chairman of Kaduna State Football Association, Hon. Abdulkadir Magaji, who passed away on 17th January 2017 and the wife of the Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports, Barr. Solomon Dalung (Mrs. Briskila Dalung) who died on 29th January 2017.

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2) The Committee expressed deep appreciation to the Federal Government and to the Federation’s corporate partners for tremendous support towards the execution of several programmes and activities during the Year 2016, and respectfully requested for even greater support for the Federation’s programmes in Year 2017.

3) The Committee formally welcomed the Chairmen of the newly –composed Boards of the Nigeria National League (Mr. Chidi Ofo Okenwa), Nigeria Women Football League (Ms. Aisha Falode) and Nation-Wide League One (Alh. Mohammed Alkali) who, by their position, are statutorily Members of the Committee. Alh. Musa Duhu, who won bye-election to replace the deceased Alh. Hussaini Modibbo, also took his seat on the Executive Committee for the first time and was also duly welcomed.

4) It was unanimously agreed that there was the need for intensive preparation of the Super Eagles for the remaining matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying race, as well as the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying series starting in June this year. As part of the preparation, the Super Eagles will play two friendly matches against quality opposition in March 2017.

5) The Committee commended the NFF Integrity Unit for some of its observations and the guidelines it rolled out recently. In addition, it was unanimously decided that effective from the end of the current football season (2), no two (2) Clubs under the umbrella of one Holding Company/State Government/ Individual Owner shall be eligible to participate in the same League.

6) The Committee mandated the Secretariat as well as the Internal Audit and Finance committees to continue to liaise with the Nigeria Football Federation’s Auditors, PriceWaterHouse Coopers (PWC) with a view to entrenching total discipline and accountability in the Federation’s financial transactions.

7) The Executive Committee praised the Local Organizing Committee of the CAF Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations headed by its 1st Vice President, Barr. Seyi Akinwunmi for the successful organization of the Championship. It also commended the Beach Soccer National Team, Supersand Eagles, for finishing second in the competition, thereby qualifying to represent Africa at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Bahamas 2017.

8) The Committee congratulated its 2nd Vice President/LMC Chairman, Mr. Shehu Dikko on being named The SUN Newspapers’ Sports Personality of Year 2016, and hailed his several ground breaking feats in the administration of the League Management Company. It also applauded the smooth take –off of the present Nigeria Professional Football League Season, now in Week 7.

9) The Executive Committee challenged all four (4) clubs representing Nigeria in this year’s CAF Champions League (Rangers International FC and Rivers United FC) and CAF Confederation Cup (Wikki Tourist FC and FC IfeanyiUbah) to intensify their preparations and strive to do the nation proud in the competitions.

10) The Executive Committee also approved the immediate implementation of the new sharing formula of monies from registration of participating clubs in the Men and Women Federation Cup competitions, with 60% due to the NFF and 40% going to the Football Association in the various States.

11) The Executive Committee unanimously agreed to support its President, Mr. Amaju Melvin Pinnick in his quest for a seat on the CAF Executive Committee, at the forthcoming 39th Ordinary Congress of CAF in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia while also respectfully appealing to the Government of Nigeria to see Pinnick’s quest as a Nigerian Project and give him support.

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