₦airaland Forum

■ Stadia need to be Upgraded

Many NPFL match venues are not television friendly with poor natural pitches and “rotten” stands.
The stands and pitch of the Umuaiha township stadium in Abia doesn’t befit a top flight match, the LMC need to set standards which clubs need to meet with any stadium presented as their home ground.

Although some stadiums just need a touch consistent maintenance of their pitches to meet acceptable standards. Clubs that can’t afford the cost of maintaining natural grass can install artificial pitches to make playing surface tolerable enough for players and broadcast aesthetics.

■ Clubs need to pay their players as at when due

Safe to say this may become a thing of the past once the privatization of the club sides come into full effect but Until then, clubs need to honour their contractual obligations to their players by paying their salaries, match bonus and incentives as at when due so as to prevent further embarrassments like the case of Enugu rangers and Sunshine stars.

Both teams have been poor so far this season especially the league champions and this is not really surprising as players can’t be expected to perform on an empty stomach especially when many of them are breadwinners for their families with responsibilities to cater for.
Godwin Obaje of Ifeanyi Ubah earns 2 million Naira monthly (the highest in the NPFL), and until players start earning such amount, they will continue to run to obscure leagues in the middle east and Scandinavians, which is not healthy for their careers and Nigerian football at large.

■ Referee should up their games

The home winning syndrome is aided by poor officiating, thus taking referees on further referee courses might reduce the level of poor officiating and bias from our referees this will, in turn, reflect in match day results.

Likewise, officials who are consistently controversial with their officiating should not be appointed for subsequent games or even be suspended in order to make other referees sit up.

■ LMC need to be swift at passing judgment on any violence case while Security at match venues Should Improve.

The league management body need not delay in punishing erring clubs as far as crowd troubles and violence is concerned, also punishments should be tough enough to serve as a caution to others.

Furthermore, security at match venues need to be enhanced, and this should be done by deploying more security officers (police/stewards) to match venues.

Security personnel at NPFL games are usually not enough to contain the excess crowd, how can police officers who are not more than 20 scattered around the stands contain a crowd of 2000 spectators when trouble erupts?

■ Orientating The Fans and Professionalism/ Sportsmanship by Club Officials

This is one of the ways that crowd troubles and violence can be checked, club sides should endeavor to enlighten their fans about football being a game where you can only get three possible results, either a win, draw or a loss. Club officials should also endeavour to move on, irrespective of results from games played or referees poor officiating.
Also, clubsides should make sure unauthorised persons are not allowed in restricted areas close to the pitch.

Having looked into the good and bad of the NPFL in the first stanza, we look at the way out and the statistics from the first 19 round of matches in this concluding part.

THE WAY OUT

■ Getting a proper Tv Rights owner for the league.

This is an area where the LMC need to address as soon as possible, since Supersports backed out of the broadcast deal which was supposed to expire next season, the LMC must make sure the blackout is not prolonged by getting another TV partner, else the interest and attention that is being gathered from followers will be lost.

There are many ways of sorting this out, the LMC can re-negotiate with supersport, or go for a different cable TV platform like Kwese TV or NTA sports on Startimes. Alternatively, the TV rights can be awarded to select regional TV stations in order to spread the NPFL coverage and broadcast to every part of the country.


CC: SEUN LALASTICLALA,MYNDD44,DOMINIQUE

SOURCE : http://cheapgoals.com/npfl-first-half-of-the-season-the-way-out-and-statistics/

As the Bet9ja National League is quickly picking up the audience, and as always it’s been an exciting campaign so far. We’ve seen thrills, skills, lovely and unforgiving side of the national league, and in between, there are about dozen teams playing some exceptional exciting football.

The greatest surprise has been the number of relatively unknown footballing talents in the NNL this season, who have quickly matured into potential NPFL product and also helping their various teams.

But, on these team we take a look at the top ten players who have been the most impressive in the NNL this season.

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http://cheapgoals.com/the-top-players-in-the-bet9ja-national-league-this-season/

With injuries hitting few members of Nigeria’s senior national football team, Ex-Super Eagles defender Garba Lawal has urged Gernot Rohr to give remarkable players in the Nigeria Professional Football League a chance to fill the vacant position.

Carl Ikeme, striker Odion Ighalo and Eagle’s skipper, John Obi Mikel are as of now nursing injuries and the trio confronts a race against time to be fit for Nigeria’s initial 2019 African Nations Cup qualifier clash against South Africa in June.



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Aaron Lennon has been confined by under the Mental Health Act as police express ‘worries over his welfare’, as per reports. The 30-year-old, who has not played for Everton since February 11, was consulted by Police officials for 20 minutes on Sunday evening.

SunSports reports the that Everton midfielder was gotten by police on a bustling street in Salford, near the M602 motorway. It is believed that Police drew nearer the £4m Ex-England midfielder and consulted with him for 20 minutes before taking him to the hospital.

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http://cheapgoals.com/aaron-lennon-detained-to-recieve-treatment-for-mental-related-illness/

Nigerian and Ex-Newcastle forward Shola Ameobi was given the goal of the season by Notts County for his spectacular strike against Colchester

The former Super Eagles striker has found another rent of life at Meadow Lane since landing back in January and has hit four goals in 16 games as Ex- colleague Kevin Nolan lead Notts County to League Two safety

The 35-year-old goal against Chesterfield on April 1st was voted the goal of the season by fans via web-based networking media – in spite of the fact that it’s believed Newcastle fans may have helped with the majority of the votes.

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http://cheapgoals.com/notts-county-cult-hero-shola-ameobi-wins-goal-of-the-season/

Barcelona Superstar Neymar and his delightful sister Rafaella are known for being fond each other as they to a trip to London looking all gorgeous and excited.

The 25-year-oldshare a photo to his Instagram page as he poses in a green hoodie and coordinating tracksuit bottoms.

Neymar’s closeness with his sister is verifiable as both have tattoos of each other. Rafaella was inked with a portrayal of her sibling’s eyes to her left side arm while the Neymar has a picture of his sister on his right arm.

The Brazilian was taking a break to appreciate a spot of tourism and he has drawn a lot of acclaim for his performances this season.

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http://cheapgoals.com/neymar-and-rafaella-takes-a-trip-to-london/

Barcelona legend Xavi Hernadez sumptuous lauded on the “Spectacular” Cristiano Ronaldo but said the Real Madrid Super star’s issue was how “Magnificient” Lionel Messi is, and would likely get significantly more praise if the Argentine forward was not around

The Portuguese star and Barca maestro Messi are routinely compared and always in a discussion and constant debate over the best players ever.

Read more on
http://cheapgoals.com/messi-existence-is-a-huge-problem-for-ronaldo-xavi/

The Second round matches of the 2016/17 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) has now been rescheduled to commence on Sunday, May 21, a move from the prior scheduled date of May 7.

Salihu Abubakar, the Chief Operating Officer of the League Management Company (LMC) in a notice to clubs imparting the new date, disclosed that it was to permit Rangers International and Rivers United finish their rescheduled fixture.

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http://cheapgoals.com/npfl-lmc-announces-may-21-as-second-stanza-resumption-date/

Vitoria Setubal midfielder Mikel Agu has been included in the Super Eagles’ temporary squad for next month’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against the Bafana Bafana.

The Midfielder, who is on loan from FC Porto, is one of the new faces that have been named in Super Eagles provisional squad for the 2019 AFCON qualifier against the SouthAfrica at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo.

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http://cheapgoals.com/super-eagles-to-replace-injured-mikel-obi-with-new-mikel/

Ghanian and Pescara Midfielder Sulley Muntari walk off the pitch in Pescara -Cagliari game for protesting after racist chants were directed at him from the stands.

The Ghanian international protested energetically at the referee, arguing the match to be hindered in the 90th-minute because of the racist chants originating from the stands.

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Tottenham embarrassingly loaded more hardships on sloppy Arsenal side as they sent the gunless Gunners crashing at White Hart Lane with a 2-0 whipping.

The London Derby looked much more significant because of its effect on title race and additionally the ‘Top Four’ race, Spurs have turned into a deadly force under Mauricio Pochettino and were frantic to have three points at White Hart Lane to continue pushing for their first title over fifty years regardless of Chelsea’s 4-point lead at the top of the EPL log.

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http://cheapgoals.com/tottenham-embarrassingly-heaped-more-woes-on-sloppy-arsenal/

BascoVanVeli:
U made bad officiating a reason why the league is not up to par, do u really think that is not tarnishing? Like i already said we should always strive to get better but don't make our referees the enemies.

And we should neglect the growing menace? No one is making the ref enemies.

BascoVanVeli:
I am glad we are pointing things out because we all want a fair league but this happens in every single league in the world. Nigeria is not special in this regard. Look at England and Spain, i can bet u they have 100 shady decisions by referees between them this season. We should not tarnish the image of the whole lot for a few bad apples.

Yea bad officiating is all over the beautiful game, but it doesn't stop us from addressing our own ..this is not tarnishing ,

ednut1:
Anichebe since he came through at everton hasnt scored up to 30 career goals in 10 years or so, how is he always in epl

lol..actually the post is about Sunderland not anichebe

bkool7:
If you don't like the police , whenever armed robbers attack you call another armed robber .

bros chill.. this arsenic punch is more efficient than North Korea nuclear weapon

Franchise21:
It has to do with majority of d stadia in Nigeria been owned by d Govt... Privatize Nigerian Clubs and Stadia is the solution

YEA, privitization is the key

Victor Anichebe’s Sunderland’s 10-year unflinching stay in the English Premier League is over after Josh King’s late strike gave Bournemouth a 1-0 triumph that sentenced the Black Cats to relegation on Saturday.

The loss, Sunderland’s 23rd of the season, implies the Black Cats are consigned and thrown out from the Premier League for a joint-record fourth time in Moyes’ first full season in control. Dropping out of the English top-flight with a whine as the most recent dreary show in a pathetic season finished with Josh King’s late strike in the 88th minute.

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http://cheapgoals.com/anichebes-sunderland-10-years-epl-stay-is-over/

Nick4life:
Must you mention me

No vex you hear

Franchise21:
Only in Nigeria they host non-sporting events in stadia

ah dey tell yu.. church crusade,wedding,public gathering and other ceremonial events..

■ INFRASTRUCTURAL DECAY OF STADIA IN THE LEAGUE.

One can count the number of standard stadia in the league with the tip of the fingers, many of the stadia pitches look more or less a public secondary school playground surrounded by open stands.

The few natural grass pitches are poorly maintained while the few good looking pitches are mostly artificial turfs.
Apart from the Godswill Akpabio’s stadium in Uyo, no other stadium can boast of a decent natural turf.

Playing at the Abia township stadium is a nightmare for players, the turf of the stadium can be likened to a Cassava plantation, yet it was approved by the LMC at the start of the season. The UJ Esuene stadium inCalabarr which used to host super eagles matches in the past, looked awful and painful as it were, was shown to the world on Supersport when MFM FC visited Enyimba in one of the league matches. Also recently parts of the stadium collapsed during one of the heavy rains in Calabar.

The LMC need to take actions on some other gory pitches like the Rwan pam stadium Jos, Gateway Intl stadium Sagamu, and most especially the Abia township stadium.

In the concluding part of this article, we will look at the viable solutions to this problem with statistics from the first stanza of the league.

#SupportTheNPFL


cc: Gotaya, Danycrusoe, Franchise21, mathematical, robosky02, Adonis3

■ CLUBS FAILURE TO PAY PLAYERS SALARIES

Although this issue has reduced compared to the recent past, some teams still owe their players backlog of salaries.

Players of Sunshine stars had earlier threatened to boycott their matchday 10 match against Rivers united in a bid to get the state government pay their salaries, with the team storming the Ondo state governor’s office in protest of their allowances.

Similarly, league champions, Enugu Rangers had their second leg of the CAF confederations cup qualifiers against Zesco united shifted by 2 hours after players refused to travel in protest of their unpaid allowances.

Until players are paid as at when due, they cannot be expected to give their 100% on the pitch of play, one of the reasons why privatisation of the clubs is needed.

■ CROWD TROUBLE

A terrible occurrence that has continued to plague our dear league, although bad officiating, crowd trouble happens all over the world, but the case of the NPFL is quite disturbing as it happens more frequently and always violent with officials and opposing players getting injured.

In week 18 matchday, Kano pillars lost at home to Akwa united, the result led to bloody attacks on Akwa united players and coaches by pillars fans apart from the 3 points won, Akwa united also took some bruises and injury back to Uyo.

On the same match day, Kastina united defeated Eyinmba by 2-1 after the away team had led for the most part of the game, yet violence erupted as Enyimba players were attacked by Kastina fans after the game, with reports that Enyimba’s Ghanaian goalkeeper Fatau Dauda punched a ball boy to coma.

■ POOR OFFICIATING

The league has been plagued with a lot of bad officiating from referees so far this season, the opening match of the season between Kano Pillars and Ifeanyi Ubah was abandoned 50 minutes into the game after the referee, Fulosho Ajayi had disallowed a clear goal scored by Ifeanyi Ubah and later sent off the official to the stands.

That hasn’t been the only controversial officiating so far this season as Remo stars (against Sunshine stars in Akure), Rivers united (against Gombe united) and a host of other teams have had clear goals cancelled by referees.

Also teams like Ifeanyi Ubah, MFM have had late penalties giving to them, albeit some legitimately, more amusing is the fact that these controversial calls have been in favour of the home side, this could be assumed to be a result of bribery and threats against referees by officials of home teams and their fans.

All these controversies trailing the referees has further tainted the image of the NPFL as a rapid growing league and also the reputation of Nigerian referees for international tournaments.

■ HOME WINNING SYNDROME

One of the two major reasons why the NPFL lost its fans (the other being security), it’s quite predictable to pick all home teams to win and they all win, just recently in the match day nineteen games, not a single draw was recorded with all home teams winning.

This is what a typical person will point out when you persuade them to watch the NPFL, a league that only the home teams always win irrespective of the pedigree of their opponents.

It’s therefore not a surprise to see Eyinmba lose to Remo stars in Sagamu or see Pillars defeated by Kastina united in Kastina. The contributing factors to this include biased officiating which was actually was aided by LMC albeit unintentionally in 2013 when home teams were told to pay referees indemnity, of course, this led to a case of “he who pays the piper dictates the tune”.

Fatigue on the part of the away teams having to play and travel twice in a week is another reason for the home winning syndrome.

After 19 rounds of matches in the Nigeria professional football league, 2017 season, the league goes on a break to give the 20 teams in the league a much-needed rest.

However, it is important to examine the successes and the failures recorded in the first half of the season by the League Management Company. As there were positives in the league so also were the downsides.in the earlier article:, we looked at the positives, however in this article, we will dissect the negatives and later on in concluding part of the article, we will talk about the way out.

THE BAD

■ LOSS OF TV COVERAGE

Just when things were going pretty fine for the NPFL, a major setback occurred when the TV rights owners of the league Supersport, decided to pull out of a three-year deal which was expected to run out in the 2018 season.

The cable TV station which has been the sole broadcaster of the league over the years claimed that the blackout of the NPFL matches on supersport is as a result of “breach of contract” by the LMC.

Until a stable TV right owner is secured, the may not improve as expected as the importance of the TV can not be overstated because video evidence will go a long way in curbing crowd violence and poor officiating while improving fans interest and followership. The popularity of foreign leagues is majorly due to their accessibility on cable TV and should the NPFL be easily available on TV just like the EPL then more followers will be won over.

Imagine what would have happened to Sikiru Olatunbosun’s goal against Rangers, without a TV coverage of the match, your guess is as good as mine; it wouldn’t have been recognised by CNN.
However, reports claim that the LMC is trying re-negotiate with Supersport over a new deal, while others are touting Kwese sports to be the league’s new TV right owners.

CC: LALASTICLALA,SEUN,MYND44,ISHILOVE

Source : http://cheapgoals.com/npfl-talking-points-from-the-first-half-of-the-season-the-bad/

Victor Moses has been a close steady player in Antonio Conte’s table-topping Chelsea team this season, however, that was not the situation in the last three seasons under former manager Jose Mourinho.

Moses was constantly and extremely proficient in past pre-seasons yet Jose Mourinho dependably had better players to field than relying on him. The 26-year-old was spending his third season out on loan since joining the Stamford Bride outfit from Wigan, taking after several loan spells at Liverpool, West Ham and Stoke City.



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Leicester City and Nigerian forward Ahmed Musa is set to tie the knot with Juliet Ajue on July 1 in Port Harcourt, after divorcing his first spouse and mother of his two kids, Jamila.

The 24-year old Super Eagles winger had been reported to have been involved with Juliet and had wanted to wed her as a second spouse. Be that as it may, Jamila was reported to have emphatically questioned it, driving them to have a ‘noisy contention’ which incited police to be called to Musa’s home in Leicester.


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