Julius OkorieThe 2024/2025 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) is on the verge of ending after the usual 38 matches played home and away basis in the 20-team elite league.
As a matter of fact, come Sunday May 25, curtain will officially fall on the season with survivors counting their blessings and relegating teams licking their wounds.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelCongrats To Remo Stars, As 2024/2025 Nigeria Premier League Season Ends:
Although Remo Stars won the league as early as the Game week 35, after defeating Niger Tornadoes, the league like the Olympic race must run its full course.
On Sunday all the 20 teams will be in action across the country. Champions Remo Stars by virtue of their performance will be competing in the CAF Champions League next season, second placed Rivers United with 61 points in 37 matches are also Champions league materials but need to dig deep as they host Nasarawa United in Port Harcourt, to properly cement that achievement.
Only a point separates Rivers United and Abia Warriors who will be up against Ikorodu City in the last game.
Third place finisher will team up with winner of the Federation Cup to compete in CAF Confederation Cup next season. Abakiliki FC and Kwara United are already looking forward to Federation Cup final on June 28.
While the eventual top four finishers of the league are patting themselves on the back, same cannot be said of teams in the relegation belt whose poor run mean automatic relegation to the lower division, the Nigeria National League (NNL).
Relegated Teams Head Back To Drawing Board:
As it stands the quartet of Heartland coached by former international Emmanuel Amuneke,Akwa United, Sunshine Stars and Lobi Stars who merely garnered between 25 to 45 points going into the last game, will have their fate properly defined after Sunday’s clashes.
Heartland will host Akwa United in what can be dubbed strugglers clash, bottom placed Lobi Stars who are as good as relegated with just 25 points in the kitty, host Bendel Insurance while Sunshine Stars are guests to last year’s Federation Cup winners El-kanemi Warriors.
While congratulating Remo Stars for emerging champions and indeed top four finishers for impressive run, is important to opine that the ratio of away wins to home wins needs continuous improvement.
At the end of Sunday clashes clearer picture of away wins compared to home wins will emerge.
Over Dominance Of Home Wins Over Away Wins Not Good Enough:
In the course of the 2023/2024 league season, a look at 330 Games played at some point, showed that 25 away wins were recorded, and that 79 matches were drawn, which means that 226 Games or 68.4% of games played were won at home. This is an indication that the league needs to improve more.
Primebusiness.africa posits that with improved sportsmanship, better tolerance to fair and square winning and losing, every venue should offer every team 50-50% chance of winning. .
The predictability of the league is not one to give a standing ovation. It may be safe to say it is this lopsided winning and predictability that affects our teams when they compete in the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup respectively.
When a team believes and works with the mentality that all home games are to be won and all away games are to be lost, then winning against North African teams who play at every venue as if it is their home ground becomes difficult.
By Sunday when the 38th game of the season has been played, the 20 teams of the league would have played 760 matches, if at the end of the day at least 45% of away games are won, it will be a huge plus.
Again in the course of the season, incidences of pitch invasion were embarrassingly recorded.
Need To Increase Punishment For Field Invasion And Other Vices:
Although the NPFL disciplinary committee appears to have stepped up punitive measures to tame this virus, it is important that this punishment for failing to play by the rules is maintained to sanitise the league.
At the moment, point deduction, playing behind closed doors, banning of match venues and paying of fines are the four punishment methods adopted by the league board.
There is need to regularly review this with a view to suspending regular offenders for at least two seasons to serve as deterrent to clubs and their fans who might want to engage in vices for the fun of it.
READ ALSO:NPFL: Just Before The Curtain Falls On 2024/2025 Season
This season, alone no fewer than for clubs got NPFL hammer for indiscipline and misbehavior at match venues, they include Nasarawa United who were indeed hammered twice, El-kanemi Warriors, Shooting Stars and Ikorodu City. Throwing a club out of the league for two seasons could make more punitive sense to checkmate the usual local parlance “las las na fine go end am”
The Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) is equally doing their part in terms of checkmating their members who fall short of expectation during officiating.
Why Our Referees Must Stick To The Rules:
Suspension has been their own method, but this too must be under constant review with a view extending period of ban when a whistle man becomes a regular offender. It is no longer news that most of our referees are sidelined in many international competitions and this should be a worry to the whistle men and indeed Nigerians.
Like FIFA President Gianni Infantino said recently, “the Game must be clean” with a charge “Together, let’s keep football clean.
On the part of the clubs, ownership is a problem. Virtually all the clubs in the NPFL are government owned clubs and most of them are run like government business. Appointing club chairmen sometimes is not in terms of their knowledge of the game but for political patronage.
Football has ceased to be just fun but has become business funding itself by winning titles, employing its staff selling shares and allowing the public to invest in the clubs and also having a say in how it is run.
Clubs, Know Your Fans:
Clubs also have register of genuine fans that pay dues and enjoy their membership of the club.
They obey rules and regulations and avoid acts that can tarnish the image of the club.
Recently two Everton fans were banned for life. One for playing a fast one ordering food in the club’s restaurant and eating same without paying, and the other for trying to remove seats illegally from the Goodison Park. There are catalogue of cases where fans have been banned for one offence or the other, but that can only happen when you have record of club fans.
These are disciplinary measures that are necessary to check behaviour of genuine fans. Where there is no nominal roll of genuine fans, the possibility of street urchins to infiltrating the club to wreak havoc over little things cannot be ruled out.
Finally the use of CCTV at match venues has become a sine qua non, to keep track of happenings both off and on the pitch.
Every match ought to be on television, and NPFL must begin to work towards all that makes other leagues especially the five top leagues, viz EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 unique.
It is achievable if we mean it and work towards it. The Nigerian League in existence since 1972 has no doubt come of age, and must be seen to be marching to the top.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
