The weekend is here and we all are looking forward to the next round of matches in Nigeria’s top flight and so much so, another home game for the People’s Elephant. The visitors this time are Katsina United who have hardly ever had joy travelling down to Aba. But before dwelling on what to expect, shall we address the Elephant in the room?
If you followed what happened on social media yesterday, you’d see some conflicts in match scheduling of this Enyimba vs Katsina United game. The Broadcast Partners of the league came out of the blues to announce a 4:30pm on Saturday timing for this Match Day 5 game and it brought out the interests and ire of some league followers as well as the home team.
All through the week, both participating teams had the notion that the game would hold on Sunday at the usual 4pm. The TV broadcasters and league organisers probably then wanted to introduce an element of surprise to the league thereby making this announcement which, it is safe to say, backfired spectacularly.
It became evident to all that the knee-jerk announcement was made without due consultation with the relevant stakholders (those that will make the game happen). In 2024, those in charge of Nigeria’s elite league still do not know that diplomacy and democratic negotiations are important in successfully running a championship?
Or is it because they got away with one last weekend and they felt it would always be the norm? What happened last weekend you want to ask? Akwa United almost threw their TV coverage into chaos after the club asserted that the league body failed to make provision for the use of floodlights for their game against Sunshine Stars.
The club claimed that the budget to power the Big generator for the Nest of Champions was beyond their Match Day expenditure and despite making calls and writing to the league body like four days before the game, they were simply shunned by the organisers. The last 15 minutes of the first half of that game was played in practical darkness before sanity prevailed.
It is very unlikely the NPFL board will win this weekend because it has been discovered that Katsina United left base on Friday morning, and considering the distance, you don’t expect them in Aba until around noon on Saturday. (I mean, you could quickly hurl them onto the pitch as soon as they get to Aba and get the Enyimba strikers a field day in office).
It was also scooped that the match officials who are coming from Plateau and Lagos state respectively had also not left base as at Friday morning when the scheduling was posted. So, will Gbenga Elegbeleye channel his inner Pierluigi Collina to come administer the game? Yeye dey smell.
In every match week so far this season, the NPFL would have written to clubs the precise schedules of TV and all by Monday or at most Tuesday, they simply failed in this obligation this week, perhaps because of the Public Holiday on Tuesday and the activities in the football house this week such as the Match Commissioners seminar and examination as well as the NFF’s AGA, so some people failed in their duties and wanted to schedule a league game as though it was some Ahlan/Gusau Pre-season tournament game?
The drama did not end there. The TV Broadcasters still went ahead to roll up a match promo on their social media handles later on Friday, still sticking to their Saturday 4:30pm guns but Enyimba replied with a two-footed lunge, a strongly worded statement to their fans to ignore the Saturday scheduling. A paragraph in the Enyimba statement caught my attention:
“While we hold the broadcaster and other partners of the league to high esteem, we also wish to call for more caution and carefulness in other not to deceive our fans and that of the league especially now that the NPFL is making great impact with the positive acheivements recorded so,” quoted verbatim.
That’s it! Some people have been dragged in the poto-poto! Let’s see who blinks first. However, isn’t it funny that Propel Africa, the online streaming service who also have the game scheduled have it for 4pm on Sunday? This is simply not how to run a league in the 21st century.
Today’s guest writer Fisayo Dairo is the Chief Football Writer at ACL Sports, a seasoned journalist and an NPFL Stalwart. Follow him on X (Twitter) @FisayoDairo
