by Victor Oladapo-Ariyo

 

Imagine the title winner winning 18 of its possible 19 home matches and drawing one, this same club now wins only 2 of its away matches, drawing 2 and losing an outrageous 15!!! What kind of a league champion is this??

In writing this piece, I have fulfilled my promise to some of my readers who have been asking me to write on the Nigerian League. The abbreviation NPFL means ‘The Nigeria Professional Football League’ still known to some as the Nigerian Premier League. The league has always been disorganised thereby not having a stable name to be recognised with like other leagues of the world. I read somewhere that in the 2013/2014 season which is yet to begin, the league will be named The Globacom Premier League again, well that is another issue for another day.

There was a time I was seriously following the Nigerian league but eventually lost interest in it after that infamous Davidson Owumi and Baribote saga. The league has a lot obstacles against its progress despite the abundance of talents. Problems ranging from bad pitches or below standard stadia, low turnout of fans on matchdays, security of lives and properties, hooliganism, insufficient funding and sponsorship of clubsides and the league itself, bad officiating, age falsification, lack of comprehensive records and so many others that if I should continue listing, I might cause severe headache for most of my readers so I better stop there for now.

I know many would still be wondering or  thinking why I called the just concluded league season a joke but I will shed more light in the next paragraphs, so bear with my inexperience at writing. I had been hearing and reading a lot of weird stories and reports about the league on the just concluded season. After several weeks of indecision and lack of organisation, the league kicked off later than usual. Despite issues of squandering of funds meant for the running of the league by some unscrupulous elements as the season started, our dear league still continued and came to a close some weeks back with Kano Pillars FC claiming the title while unfortunately Kwara United FC, ABS FC of Ilorin, Wikki Tourist of Bauchi and Shooting Stars Sports Club of Ibadan got relegated to the Nigeria National League (NNL) for the 2013/2014 season.

I was shocked when I checked the final standings of clubs on the league table at the end of the 2012/2013 season. Kano Pillars FC won the league title with a mean 63 points after 38 matches while Shooting Stars at the bottom of the log got relegated with 46 points after 38 matches also. You will be wondering what kind of league this is considering the closeness of points. How on earth will there be a difference of just 17 points between a league winner and a bottom of the table team in a 20-team league format? There was just a difference of 13 points from the league winner and the relegation zone. This closeness is just too unacceptable in this modern day football.

When I looked closely at the details on the log, all what I saw was a joke, thereby making me believe it was fixed. I know this has been happening for a long time but it is becoming too much to bear with. Imagine the title winner winning 18 of its possible 19 home matches and drawing one, this same club now wins only 2 of its away matches, drawing 2 and losing an outrageous 15! What kind of a league champion is this??

Another surprising fact is that no club in the just concluded league season won more than 3 away matches! The only team that even won the 3 away matches eventually got relegated (Kwara United), can’t you smell something there? Kaduna United that ended the season on 10th position didn’t even win or draw any of their away matches, isn’t this alarming? We all can see that corruption is boldly written all over the walls of the Nigerian league. It is almost a taboo to win or even draw an away match in the Nigerian league. Hence, the closeness in points amongst clubs on the league table or log.

It is only in the Nigerian league that a table-topping team will win its home match against a bottom team by 4 goals to nothing but go on the following week to lose an away match 2 goals to nothing to a bottom placed team even when they don’t have a coach (Lol). I don’t think there is anything called ‘form’ in the Nigerian league like we have in other leagues of the world. No club has a good or bad form as long as the club is at home or away. The 11th commandment in the Nigerian league I suppose is ‘Thou shall not WIN an AWAY match’. It will be very rare or even impossible to experience upsets like the ones we get to see in European leagues where little known or bottom placed teams defeat top rich teams away from home like West Ham United of England did to Manchester United at Old Trafford few weeks back.

All these issues all comes down to corruption within the league starting from the organisers or management, to the match officials down to the various club chairmen or owners and other stakeholders. I don’t think there is anywhere in FIFA, CAF and NFF statutes that states that winning an away match is an offence. I strongly believe that the 2012/2013 league season was just a joke and needs to be investigated by credible authorities like FIFA. The league is getting worse day by day and it is a pity that those in positions to put things right are after their personal dreams and gains. We cannot just keep looking and fold our arms and let things go on like this. Imagine the 2012/2013 season just coming to an end about 2 weeks ago (October 20) and the 2013/2014 season is yet to commence.

The league management should be overhauled and should be taken over by individuals who are credible, honest and dedicated to the development of the league like other developed leagues around the world. This needs to be done because a well run local league will always produce quality players for the various national teams at different age grades.  The state of league football in Nigeria is a shame at present and necessary actions must be taking for the future of Nigerian football.

 

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Oladapo Victor-Ariyo tweets from @Twomie

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.