Fans will have to wait longer as reports confirm that the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) Board have postponed the start of the 2023/24 campaign by two weeks.
The upcoming season was initially scheduled by the NPFL board to begin on August 26. All seemed to be pointing in that direction after the Club Owners Association all agreed to the proposed date, following a meeting with the NPFL board.
In the latest development though, the NPFL board has now reached out to the Club Owners Association about a change in plans.
The new date for the upcoming season has now been postponed to the weekend of September 9, 2023.
NPFL 2023/2024 new start date: Why was it postponed?
As per reports, the main reason the start of the campaign was pushed forward was to allow the teams partaking in continental competitions to start the season the same weekend as the remaining teams in the league.
This is to help the teams in question and prevent postponing their league matches, which would have been the case, if the league was to start at the initially agreed date of August 26.
Reigning champions Enyimba FC, Federation Cup winners Bendel Insurance and South West giants Remo Stars will be Nigeria's representatives in CAF’s Inter Club competitions on the weekend of August 26.
Enyimba will take on Libya’s Al Ahly Benghazi, Insurance will face ASO Chlef of Algeria while Remo take on Ghanaian side Medeama SC in a highly-anticipated encounter.
Asides the fixture schedule, final touches are still being put in place to ensure that the streaming of matches will go on smoothly and fans can watch all games even from the comfort of their homes, via the NPFLLive platform.
Propel Africa Sports are in charge of this initiative and have already shown what they are all about ahead of the new campaign.
If all things go to plan, the 2023/2024 NPFL season could witness the most games available for live streaming, thanks to Propel Africa who have already started with installation of their AI technology infrastructure around several venues across the country.
There are plans to broadcast well over 300 games in the upcoming games.
BREAKING:
The 2023/2024 NPFL season resumption postponed.
* The League season is now set to kick-off on September 8-10th (And not August 26th).
The reasons for the two weeks postponement;
* The NPFL Live App needs time to be ready for next month. Test run of camera and… pic.twitter.com/4RJCmPUtbe
— Adepoju Tobi Samuel 🇳🇬 (@OgaNlaMedia) August 14, 2023
League venues such as the New Jos Township Stadium, Zaria Road, Kwara State Sports Complex, Ilorin, Muhammadu Dikko Stadium, Katsina, Sani Abacha Stadium, Kano, Pantami Stadium, Gombe and Lekan Salami Stadium, Ibadan have already had the Al Cameras installed.
🏟️THE PANTAMI FORTRESS, GOMBE.
The @PropelSportsAF train at the Camera Handling training in the Jewel of the Savannah.💎#NPFLLive #NPFL24 pic.twitter.com/5BOnKIP5SZ
— NPFLLive (@NPFL_Live) August 13, 2023
Final plans are being put in place to ensure cameras will be installed in as many NPFL venues as possible and the extended time will also give Propel Sports the opportunity to tie up loose ends on that front.
In the meantime, the draws for the new season will carry on as planned on Thursday, August 17, 2023 in Lagos by the NPFL board. The participating clubs will have the three Clubs Owners representatives on the league board as their representatives.
This article was most recently revised and updated 1 year ago
