Stakeholders and followers of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) have been offered assurances that fixtures would be played as scheduled except for those already disrupted by the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) competition games that involved Rivers United.
The Promise Keepers, who flew Nigeria’s flag in the CAF Confederation Cup, exited the competition last Sunday at the quarterfinals after a 0-2 aggregate score against Young Africans of Tanzania. The Port Harcourt side, playing in Group B of the NPFL, have outstanding fixtures against Sunshine Stars (home), Wikki Tourists (away) and Doma United (home), all acquired in order to enable them have full focus on the continental ties.
“Our fixtures fidelity has been proven from the kickoff and we are working to accommodate Rivers United outstanding games to ensure the season is concluded with minimal blip”, Head of Operations of the Interim Management Committee (IMC), Davidson Owumi said.
He announced that MatchDay 17 would be played this weekend in both groups in line with the calendar, and commended Rivers United for reaching the knockout stage of the competition.
“While we work around dates to reschedule outstanding matches of Rivers United, the weekend games will be played as scheduled in the two groups”, he reiterated, noting that “we won’t be distracted by incendiary comments or actions from any quarters”, the IMC representative said.
“Our desire is to see Nigerian clubs go all the way in the competition and this will naturally affect our fixtures just as it does elsewhere. All we need to do is to find acceptable dates that won’t unduly pile pressure on our representatives and that’s what we are going to do in the coming days”.
He acknowledged that the last matches of Group B teams, which involved Rivers United, would be completed simultaneously on a date to be announced, while matches of Group A sides would be played as scheduled in the calendar.
“After the MatchDay 17, Group B matches would be paused to allow Rivers United complete their backlog and we hope to accomplish this within the month”, the former Nigerian international told IMC Media.
Source: IMC Media
