By Abiola Olawale
The Nigeria Women’s Football League (NWFL) on Monday announced the postponement of week 5 games following the failure of the premiership clubs to meet the COVID-19 test requirements for players and club officials.
The football association announced that the week 5 games which was initially scheduled to start on Friday 15th of January has been postponed.
Dapo Sotuminu, media officer of the NWFL, made the announcement after board members met at the Secretariat in Abuja.
The media officer said, “The board of the Nigeria Women Football League headed by Aisha Falode, has declared the postponement of Week 5 matches in order to accommodate collation and validation of the COVID-19 test being considered by the Premiership clubs.”
Following the postponement, the board has scheduled week 5 games to take place on January 20, to enable clubs conduct their COVID-19 tests.
The Chairperson of NWFL, Aisha Falode, confirmed the directive of the board members in a statement released on Monday.
The statement reads: “Going by the fresh wave of increased COVID-19 infections due to the new variants of the deadly disease which have left more people dead in Nigeria than before. We are currently verifying and validating results sent in by some of the 14 clubs not up to half of the clubs in the league. We are also going to verify the authenticity of the test centers sent in by the clubs from the Federal Ministry of Health, going by the reports that some clubs are going to unapproved centers to conduct the test.”
Falode also stressed that, “The board has given enough time to the clubs to complete the test and send results with proofs from government approved test centres, to the Secretariat by mail and hard copies on or before January 15, 2021.”
The chairperson also warned that any club found wanting at the end of the exercise will be suspended from the league indefinitely.
It would be recalled that the current 2020/21 league started on 9th of December, after the rampaging coronavirus hindered the activities of the league.
Recall also that NWFL premiership, founded in 1990, is the top-level league for women’s association football in Nigeria. The association is headed by a chairperson. The current chairperson of the association is Falode. The women premiership is equivalent to the men’s league, the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).
The NWFL is responsible for organising the Nigeria Women Premier League (NWPL). Jedege babes (now known as Dream stars FC ladies) of Lagos State won the first league trophy, in 1990.
However, Pelican stars FC of Calabar State is the most successful club in the league. They have won the league seven times.
