Nigeria’s club football champions for the 2022/23 season will be known latest 11th June, going by the fixtures released on Monday by the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL).
According to the timetable, the Super 6, from where the champions will emerge, kicks of on 3rd June with 15 matches on five Matchdays being played at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena (formerly Onikan Stadium), Lagos.
The regular season will end this Sunday, 21st May in the two groups. Already, Bendel Insurance (Group A), Rivers United and Lobi Stars (both Group B) have qualified for the Super 6. The Pride of Rivers made that certain on Moday when they beat Sunshine Stars 1-0 in Port Harcourt in a rescheduled Matchday 12 fixtures.
Rivers have their last outstanding match against Doma United to be played at home on Thursday, but they are already on top of their table, edging Lobi Stars to second place yesterday.
In a statement on Monday, IMC’s Head of Operations, Davidson Owumi explained that the revision of the schedule was agreed with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to accommodate the league and the Federation Cup, which is now in the Round of 16.
“With Federation Cup Round of 16 and quarter finals fixtures slated for 24th and 28th of May, we reasoned that the Super 6 can no longer hold from the earlier date as some of the teams that might qualify for the play-off are also possibly going to be in the Federation Cup”, Owumi said.
He further said that, following a meeting with the NFF, a new schedule was arrived at which would see the finals of the Federation Cup continuing after the Super 6 on 11th June.
In the calendar of events, teams are expected to arrive on 1st June with match officials expected the next day, while the first games holding on 3rd June.
There will be three games on each Matchday with free days in between each Matchday.
The team with the highest points in the round-robin will emerge champions.
