The kick-off date for the 2021/2022 season of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) has been disclosed by the Chairman of the League Management Company (LMC), Mallam Shehu Dikko.
Dikko has revealed that new NPFL season will resume October 2021 and end in May 2022. The LMC boss said this to the Sport Writers Association of Nigeria(SWAN) during their visit to his office in Abuja.
According to Dikko, he stated that it’s only ideal to make the league go in line with the calendar of CAF, and the previous season was rounded off in August so the new season could start early.
While speaking to SWAN, Dikko said “There’s a mandate from CAF and that’s to align our league with their season schedule, The LMC body decided to round off the league in August so the new 2021/2022 season could begin and must end by 2022 May irrespective of anything that comes up. The new season just have to begin, and it’s a challenge that our clubs are ready and willing to face.
“As it’s known that CAF competitions resumes in September, there’s an agreement to summon all the clubs for a meeting on the date that the season will end, regardless of the outcome of the meeting, we must kick off our season by October. The previous season ended on August 8 so a month break was given to the players and now all the teams are back in Camp.”
Speaking further, the NPFL director said, “Logically, the CAF competition starts on the 10th of September so all preparations must sorted for the new season to start as soon as possible,
“So when the CAF competition starts officially and our clubs will be ready to adjust to the new CAF competition schedule. Preseasons are ongoing so our target for new season kick off is the first week in October
“Without further ado, we must meet our club owners to have a clearer stand on the date and that’s the reason most of the clubs are resuming back to camp and hopefully once this is settled, we will be back to the normal league scheduled for CAF competition,” Dikko said.
It was also gathered that a meeting would be held between the LMC officials and club owners to make the proposed date possible.
