Former champions Plateau United had to cut short their trip to honour the opening fixture of the 2023/24 Nigeria Professional Football League against 3SC in Ibadan, following the postponement of the new season again by the league board on Wednesday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
Plateau United were scheduled to face 3SC on Saturday, September 9 in the league’s curtain raiser, and sources within the club told our correspondent that the team had reached Abuja when they got the information and had to make their way back to Jos.
“We are in Abuja at the moment. We got the news of the postponement on the road so we are going back to Jos,” the source said.
The Nigeria Premier League board postponed the kick-off of the new season for the second time on Wednesday. The league was initially billed to start on August 26, but was moved by two weeks to September 9 for the installation and testing of new AI cameras for streaming the league.
The league body is yet to announce a new date for the commencement of the league.
In a letter sent to all clubs, the board noted that the kick-off has been put on hold due to exigencies connected to the sponsorship of the league.
In another statement on the Facebook page of the NPFL, the chief operation officer, Davidson Owumi, said that the league body yielded to representations from various stakeholders in reaching the decision.
“The board of the Nigeria Premier Football League has announced a postponement of the scheduled kickoff for the 2023/24 season citing the need to have members focus on the Annual General Meeting of the Nigeria Football Federation which holds in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
“We have everything set for the kickoff in Ibadan on Saturday but following representations from multiple stakeholders,” Owumi said.
While 3SC’s game against Plateau United was supposed to be the season’s curtain raiser with nine other games shifted by a week before, it remains to be seen if the 10 games would be played simultaneously by the time a new kickoff date is announced.