By Chuks Ogbu
The 2019/2020 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season kicked off on Sunday the 3rd of November with some interesting games in eight venues around the country(and two rescheduled games) .
The games were interesting with six home wins, three draws and one away win (MFM beating Heartland in Okigwe).
The week two matches produced Interesting results as well. With two away wins, six draws and just one home win (Lobi Stars 4-0 whitewash of Delta Force). http://www.bellsnews.com/sports/enyimba-3-1-nasarawa-united-enyimba-tame-resilient-nasarawa-united/
Making it a total of 19 matches seven home wins, nine draws and three away wins.
This recent results is a sign of good days for our domestic league, it means that teams can travel for away games and genuinely hope to get a positive results, that means away teams can no longer go to matches playing defensively (which is seen as negative football), they can now play entertaining, attack minded games, thereby making our league matches attractive. http://opr.news/s1c33b9e0191112en_ng
The Attractive nature of the games can easily bring back the fans to the stands, thereby returning the love & interest of Nigerians to the NPFL.
with the new Television right deal signed by the LMC with Next TV to beam our league matches to the world is another step in the right direction.
The whole world can see our players on live TV do their stuff in an attractive way in the League, with an enthusiastic and passionate Fans in the stands,one can say the Nigeria domestic league is on its way to becoming the best in Africa.
Certain areas needs to be amended for us to sustain these giant strides. Our referees must remain resolute in discharging their duties (just as the did in the first two weeks of the league), the clubs must make the players welfare paramount, the fans must understand that football is not a do or die affair & must shun any form of violence and hooliganism even when results don’t go their way.
Now the question is will the Nigeria Professional Football League sustain these giant strides? Only time will tell.