10th July, 2020
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has canceled the 2019/2020 football season in Nigeria.
However, September and October have been put forward as tentative dates for the start of a new season.
The NFF reached this resolution in an online meeting on Friday, July 10 which had in attendance the Chairpersons of all the National Leagues and the President of the Nigeria Referees Association and the Executive Committee of the NFF.
The Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) and the Nigeria National League (NNL) had been suspended since March 2020 and December 2019 respectively.
For the NPFL, it ends at the currency Matchday 25 and the NFF has decided to adopt the Points Per Game (PPG) table to be used to rank the teams in order to ensure sporting merit and supporting fairness.
Based on the resolution, Plateau United, Rivers United, and Lobi Stars who are the top three teams on the table after the last matchday will be submitted to the Confederations of African Football (CAF) to represent Nigeria in the 2020/2021 CAF Inter-Club competitions.
Plateau United and Rivers United will represent Nigeria at the CAF Champions League while Lobi Stars will compete in the CAF Confederation Cup.
There will also be no promotion to or relegation from the NPFL for the 2019/2020 season.
It’s the same for the Nigeria National League (NNL)-second division, where there will be no promotion to or relegation from.
The 2019/2020 Nigeria Women’s Football League season which was yet to start has been aborted also with all focus on the new season. The same applies to the Nigeria Nationwide League (NNL) the third level of football in Nigeria.
Aiteo Cup which is the domestic cup in Nigeria which had only commenced at the state level has been aborted while the 2019 winners will be presented for the 2020/2021 CAF Confederation Cup.
The Aiteo Cup 2020/2021 season will start from September/October 2020 to end May 2021.
All tentative dates for the new season are subjective to the directives of the Federal Government in line with COVID-19 protocols.