Notice anything curious about the league table
below? It shows the final standings of the
Nigeria Premier League, which finished last
week. Kano Pillars became the first club in a
decade to win back-to-back titles but look
beyond that and ask yourself this: have you
ever seen a starker difference between home
and away results? The final 2013 Nigerian league table, showing
home wins and away wins highlighted in grey.
Photograph: Fifa
Ten of the league's 20 teams went through the
whole season unbeaten at home, while no team
won more than three away matches in the
entire campaign. The runners-up, Enyimba, did
not even concede a goal at home, winning 17
and drawing two of their 19 home games while
winning just once away. The disparity between
Gombe United's home and away form is even
more striking: they managed to win 18 and
draw one of their 19 home games, scoring an
average of more than two goals per game, but
away they lost every match, managing a grand
total of four goals in 19 games. What is going
on?
Enyimba's sweep of home clean sheets is
unprecedented but the overall trend of home
invincibility and away vulnerability is not new
in the NPL, where travelling teams face
perilous challenges relating to violent crowds,
questionable refereeing and, indeed, travel
itself. Arriving just before kick-off after long
road trips, often on hazardous surfaces, is far
from ideal preparation for players. And they
do not always arrive. Last season two matches
were postponed when first Sunshine Stars and
then Wikki Tourists were robbed on their way
to games. Mostly, of course, teams do make it
to grounds – and that is when they must
contend with fans and referees.
Referees must contend with fans too – for the
men in the middle being beaten up is not so
much a risk of the job as an inevitability. Wikki
Tourists and Kwara United both had results
overturned this season after particularly
vicious attacks on officials at the grounds,
while Enugu Rangers were ordered to play six
matches behind closed doors for similar
reasons. Those punishments were imposed
after referees threatened a boycott and
demanded bodyguards, though the officials
relented after discussions with the League
Management Company (LMC), which was set up
last year to bring order to a league where
violence, corruption and legal disputes
between clubs are obscuring the performances
of highly-talented, low-paid players (eight of
the 23 Super Eagles that Stephen Keshi took to
the summer's Confederations Cup play in the
NPL).
Lack of funding constrains the LMC's ability to
help referees in one crucial way: officials do
not receive salaries from the league, rather
they get "indemnities" that are paid before
each match by the home team. At least, that is
how the arrangement is supposed to work but
referees complain that some clubs try to make
payment performance-related. It is now
common for away teams to seek to ensure
balance before a game by offering to cover
referees' indemnities too. "Sometimes the
quality of refereeing can come down to which
team offered the most generous expenses," a
club official who did not wish to be named told
the Guardian.
Even when referees are determined not to be
influenced by payments, they must show even
greater fortitude to ignore the demands of
certain crowds. And even if they do, that is still
no guarantee that the home mob will not get
their way. "There was an infamous case several
years ago when a referee, Dogo Yabilsu,
awarded a penalty to Sharks at Kwara United
and fans invaded the pitch," recalls the
Nigerian editor of kickoffnigeria.com Colin
Udoh. "Yabilsu was a colonel in the army and
he took out his service pistol and chased the
fans off. But Sharks were still afraid of what
would happen if they scored so their player
deliberately missed the spotkick."
Dolphins' players were equally intimidated at
Kano Pillars a couple of seasons ago – so when
the home side were awarded a late penalty
several of them pleaded with their goalkeeper,
Sunday Rotimi, a former international
renowned for his penalty-saving prowess, to
dive the wrong way, which he duly did.
Football does not, of course, exist in isolation.
The sport is affected by problems that bedevil
the country in general. That is true for
corruption and funding difficulties, and also
when it comes to political strife. Accordingly,
north-east Nigeria, where the Boko Haram
Islamist jihadist group operates, is an especially
daunting away assignment – and not just
because of the fear of being caught up in
incidents such as the bomb attack that forced
the postponement of last season's clash
between Kano Pillars and Enyimba.
Supersport, the television company with the
NPL screening rights, considers the region too
volatile to send cameras to the home matches
of sides such as Kano Pillars, El-Kanemi
Warriors and Gombe United; and rival clubs
claim that one of the reasons that none of those
sides lost at home this season is because the
absence of footage allows them and referees to
get away with particularly outrageous abuses.
Northern clubs retort that their rivals are
merely inventing excuses. It is never easy to
know who to believe, a fact that the LMC
discovered last month when the potential title-
decider between Kano Pillars and Enyimba was
abandoned following a pitch invasion. Enyimba
refused to play on, claiming their players
feared for their lives, but Pillars officials
protested that their fans had simply been
"jubilating" after their team scored a goal and
pointed out that the pitch was cleared in under
90 seconds, the threshold at which a points
deduction becomes mandatory.
The referees' report suggested officials felt the
atmosphere was not safe for play to continue,
but Pillars, who had been filming the match
themselves, produced footage that appeared to
show the referee trying to convince Enyimba
players to come back on to the pitch.
Not knowing what to conclude, the LMC
ordered the match to be replayed at a neutral
venue. Pillars took a giant step to the title by
winning 1-0, a "home" victory for which the
club rewarded their players with the bonus
they normally get for away wins – 40,000 Naira
(about £155) – one of just three times all
season that the champions earned that bounty.






Culled from the Guardian

Wen u win an away game in NPL, they give u team of the week award immediately..

That was last season

polymathic: Wen u win an away game in NPL, they give u team of the week award immediately..

how true is this?

Mcweber: how true is this?

I'm an ardent follower of NPL, love the league so much, just that away teams rarely wins and makes the league so borin

polymathic: I'm an ardent follower of NPL, love the league so much, just that away teams rarely wins and makes the league so borin

Thats not good for the development of football in Nigeria

Mcweber: Thats not good for the development of football in Nigeria

Yea, not good at all... It has to be corrected asap

polymathic: Yea, not good at all... It has to be corrected asap

Hmm, by who. that has become a moral decadence in this country

.

Mcweber: Hmm, by who. that has become a moral decadence in this country

I'm speechless, cos there seems no way it could be corrected at all..

polymathic: I'm speechless, cos there seems no way it could be corrected at all..

True talk

Mcweber: True talk

Let's keep hoping and prayin a change comes someday... Cos the league being aired on SS gotta be worth spending tym on, watchin SA league gvs me joy, but ours, tis a sure bet the home teams win

If the teams wins away, they would be beaten on their way home... When the table toppers drew the bottom team, I think it was last two weeks. The coach made this statement "Atleast we tried, we picked a point on the road" And I was like WTF?? Is it that bad to win away? But when it comes to African CL, foreign teams humiliate Nigerian teams in their home ground. So you see, the league is fixed

An away win in npl, i dont blieve it

Me think d crowd inasion of d pitch can be checked by installing very high strong net fencing just like d bundesliga teams do. Nd nobody must b allowd near d pitch apart from d coaches, subs nd d medical staffs. Wit dis done 40 per cent of d league's probs will b solved