Football not dead, but poor outing due to challenges – Sports Minister

The Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare said, the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) will kick off on the 27th of December, 2020.

The Minister disclosed this at a press conference in Lagos on Friday, saying that the COVID-19 pandemic has hampered the league, but that they were set to reopen.

Dare dismissed critics of the Nigeria Football administration who are saying that football is dead in Nigeria, but admitted that footballing in Nigeria was going down due to numerous challenges.

He said football in West African subregion hasn’t resumed due to unresolved issues with organisers as well as the factor of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Minister further disclosed that the Ministry of Youths and Sports will be meeting with the NPFL and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to fine-tune plans for the restart of football in the country.

“Clubs, they will be an assessment of teams’ readiness to resume action”, stressing that the league will resume with the teams that are ready.

Sports enthusiasts had linked the poor outing of Nigerian teams in the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederations Cup to the halting of the league.

Both Plateau United and Kano Pillars recently crashed out of the Champions League and the Confederations Cup respectively, heightening calls for the resumption of the domestic league.