Club News

All forty six (46) clubs competing in the 20-21 Nigeria National League have till Friday 23rd of July to conform with the directives of the world football governing body, FIFA on the CONNECT Registration in the Nigeria Football Federation.

Club secretaries or any other designated club official compulsorily are to forward required information and documents to the Nigeria Football Federation FIFA Connect Office in Abuja.

This is to ensure that the deadline line for the exercise Monday 26th as stipulated by FIFA is met.

The FIFA Connect Project is designed as a registration portal where all football stakeholders, including players, coaches, referees and other administrators are registered.

It means that all in Nigeria football are registered in a centralized platform with each having a unique ID to identify him/her through out their playing career.

It also enables the tracking of the career history of players and automatically generate player passports during transfers thus ending the constant problem of producing player international players passports at every transfer, amongst others.

It is obligatory according to the Nigeria Football Federation to register all players in the leagues and at both local, state and national football leagues.

All State Football Associations of the NNL clubs are also to take note of this mandatory development and ensure compliance by teams.

Chairman of the Nigeria National League, Distinguished Senator Obinna Ogba, says the Football Development Summit for Club Administrators and Media Mangers is to help confronting some of the challenges facing the Nigeria National League (NNL).
Ogba said on Friday in Abuja during a one-day training session in collaboration with Vandyke Academy of Sports (VAS) that the event would help with solutions.
“The summit will help proffer possible solutions to the issues limiting the league’s progress,” Ogba, who was represented by Sajo Mohammed, the league’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said.
“I strongly believe that this summit is coming at a very appropriate time, in view of the spate of high rate of misconducts that have characterized the 2020/2021 league season.
“That is why we have gathered here today, to begin the onerous journey of repositioning our league, uphold standards and apply professionalism in our administration of football in the NNL.
“The Summit is being organized to engage in intense introspection about the challenges confronting our league.
“We will also chart the best and most acceptable way of the resolution of our challenges for the collective interest of all stakeholders,’’ he added.

Ogba, who is the Senator representing Ebonyi Central Senatorial District, also noted that the media has a huge part to play in repositioning the league.
“We are all aware that only the league with good and positive reportage can attract sponsors and investors.
“Our sports media must know that damage to the league is also a damage to their career. When football is killed, there will be nothing to report.
“While we make this appeal, we must realize that the media is key in our quest to indeed reposition our league.
“We must encourage the media and carry them along as an integral part of our day-to-day
activities,’’ he added.

From Thursday 26 of this month, the Nigeria National League(NNL) has hinted that it will send Stadium Compliance Officers to the designated home grounds of teams participating in the 2021/2020 League season.

This is part of its pre-season activities to herald the fresh season under the new leadership of Senator Obinna Ogba.

The stadium Compliance Officers are to ascertain the level of facilities in the various Stadiums to be used by clubs as stipulated in the NNL Rule book.

According to the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Most Important League in Nigeria, Mr. Emmanuel Adesanya, clubs will have no choice than to provide alternative venue for their matches, if their stadium falls short of the required standard.

Mr. Adesanya added that the clubs are to ensure that every logistics for the ease of the inspection exercise are in place.

Subject to Congress ratification the NNL Stakeholders meeting held on the 6th of November, 2020 in Abuja agreed for two conferences in the Northern and Southern regions of the country, for an abridged League format for the 2020-2021 seasons.

And following directives by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), the Nigeria National League is expected to kick – off three (3) weeks after the start of the elite class, the Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL

The need for synchronization of the various football Leagues in Nigeria in their areas of operations, programmes and activities has been emphasized.

This was the focal point during a weekend meeting held between organizers of the country’s apex men’s league, the League Management Company (LMC) and its sister League, the next important League, the Nigeria National League, NNL.

The meeting which was intended to be a courtesy visit to the LMC by the new Management team of NNL incidentally had the 1st Vice-President of the Nigeria Football Federation Barrister Seyi Akinwunmi who oversees Football Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation in attendance. Also in attendance were the LMC Chairman and his Team and the newly appointed CEO of NNL, COO and some management staff of NNL.

Barrister Seyi said harmonizing the various leagues is needed to put the domestic football on the right footing, according to him the leagues do not exist in isolation to each other, they play complementary roles.

The wide gulf that exist in the kick- off and closing dates of the Leagues must be closed and the only way to do this is for the leadership of both the LMC and NNL to interface regularly, weigh their calendars, to enable them find a go-between them.

He declared that restructuring the Leagues is key towards achieving better productivity “Nigeria domestic football will amount to nothing if the league bodies are not properly set up to attract prospective sponsors”.

He strongly advocated a gradual cutting down of the number of clubs featuring in the NNL to a more manageable figure, saying the present number of about forty six waters the value of the League.

Barrister Seyi canvassed for a phase plan deduction of the number of participating teams in the NNL. He said NNL should be a traditional League of about twenty team format to bring in quality, attractiveness and competitiveness.

The Chairman of the NNL, Sen. Obinna Ogba through his Chief Executive Officer Barr. Sajo Mohammed canvassed for collaboration in the areas of capacity building/technical support and recognition in all LMC’s future sponsorship/partnership drive.

The Chairman of LMC Shehu Dikko promised improved synergy and collaboration with the NNL

The Nigeria National League, NNL has directed its clubs to ensure the provision of Certificate of Incorporation from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as part of the efforts of the league body to hold the clubs more accountable in their operations and responsibilities. The evidence of the clubs in moving forward as a limited liability company is a major prerequisite for the 2020/2021 season. This time around, the certificate which is an essential document must be forwarded to NNL for sighting and domiciliation during registration. NNL Chief Operating officer, Mr. Emmanuel Adesanya said the second important League in the country is aiming at providing the best and most responsible league for all stakeholders including sponsors and fans. “Incorporation will authenticate clubs legal existence. We want a system where the clubs can cater adequately for their players and officials and operate under global standards best practices. Club incorporation is a huge step towards achieving this milestone” “Football is big business, consequently, we are keen in ensuring that the clubs see it as such, hence we are promoting it as such. Anything less will be counter productive Mr. Adesanya stated with optimism. Furthermore, Emmanuel declared that the clubs must forward an irrevocable letter of undertaking to complete the league and never to bring it to any form of disrepute. Such he noted must be endorsed by the club owner(s) or sponsor(s) and their state Football Association.