Amokachi Backs this Season’s NPL to Better Last Year’s Edition

Kunle Adewale

Inspite of the applauses the organisers of the 2022/23 Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL, enjoyed from followers of the game and observers, former Super Eagles  striker, Daniel Amokachi has stated that this season’s Nigerian league, which hopefully commences on September 9, would be better than last season’s edition.

In a chat with THISDAY, after the Inauguration of the  All-Stars Committee by the Chairman of the NPFL Board-Gbenga Elegbeleye, Amokachi, who heads the new committee is of the opinion that this season’s league would be fascinating in every sphere and an improvement on last season’s.

“This year’s league would be far better than the last edition. Last season a lot of people rated it 8/10 in spite of the fact that it was an Abridged League. This season it  is going to be a full season and hopefully the final outcome would by far be better than last year’s.

“Teams going away from home to win games, is a plus for the league. The referees have also braced up to doing what needed to be done, unlike what we witnessed in the past. With the federation supporting the league, the chairman of NPFL sitting up and ensures that things work according to plan, the fans being responsible at the stadiums due to the awareness created, unlike what we had in the past. I’m very convinced that we would have a fantastic league season this time around,” an optimistic Amokachi said.

Meanwhile, the 1996 Olympics gold medallist has also hailed the NPFL Chairman for coming up with the Team of the Month initiative describing it as beautiful.

“It’s a beautiful initiative. Kudos goes to the Chairman of NPFL, Elegbeleye for sourcing this opportunity for the local league players to play against top La Liga clubs at the end of the season.

It’s a platform that would bring out the best of the players. If I know as a player that at the end of the season I will have the opportunity to be selected in the All-Stars team and represent Nigeria in Spain, which might be the game changer my life then I’ll give everything. That is the plus we’re looking at and we pray that we will be able to get sponsors for prizes for the players that made the Team of the Month,” the former Everton forward said. 

Speaking in the same vein, the Chairman of Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria (PFAN) and co-chairman of the All-Stars Committee, Harrison Jala, said the committee was ready for the task ahead, assuring that the 2023/2024 league season would be more innovative in order to build on the success of the previous season.

“This is a call to service; we intend to make fairness our watchword and give our league a facelift, and make it better than the 2022/2023 league season.

“If you check the calibre of people on the committee, you’d see that they’re seasoned professionals in their rrespective fields. We are open to suggestions and ideas but fairness remains our watchword,” he said

For the Chairman of Propel Sports Africa, Basil Kabbani, he promise that his organisations would made available statistics of matches readily available when the NPFL kickoff.