2021/2022 NPFL season to kick off next month

Chairman of the League Management Company (LMC), Mallam Shehu Dikko has revealed the kick-off date for the 2021/2022 season of the NPFL.

The LMC boss declared October 2021 as when the new season will resume and end in May 2022. Dikko disclosed this during the visit of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Abuja branch, to his office in Abuja.

Dikko noted that it’s only logical to align the league with the calendar of CAF and that the reason the 2020/2021 season rounded off in August is so that the 2021/2022 season could kick off early.

“We have a mandate from CAF to align our league with their calendar, the reason we have to do all that we did in August to finish our league and now we have to start early that is certain 2021/2022 we have to finish by May regardless of what happened. We just have to start the new season early and our clubs are ready for these challenges.

“We have to come to a conclusion and call our clubs to a meeting on when we will finish our season, the CAF competition starts in September whatever we are doing we have to start by September or early October, we have to agree on the date to start we just finished our season on August 8 the players are not machine we have to give them a month rest and now the continental teams are already in camp now.”

Speaking further, the NPFL Supremo said:

“ideally the CAF competition starts on the 10th of September so whatever we are doing we have to start as quickly as we can.

“So when the CAF competition starts officially and our clubs are readjusting to the new CAF schedule and some of them are into preseason now, we have to target end of September or the 1st week in October.

“We must meet our club owners and we need to have a clearer date that’s why you can see that most of the clubs are already back in camp and hopefully once we cross these hurdles we will be back to the normal league scheduled for CAF competition,” Dikko said.