At the end of a midseason review session in Abuja on Monday, the Chairmen and General Managers of clubs in the Nigeria Professional Football League rated the half season as successful.
This came with a call on the League Management Company to improve on some lapses that were observed in the course of the first 190 matches.
On their side, the clubs pledged to be proactive in dealing with fans who are involved in violent acts at the stadium by apprehending them and handing them over to law enforcement agents for prosecution.
The midseason review session was convened by the LMC at its office in Abuja ahead the start of the second stanza of the 2016/17 season on May 21.
One of the far reaching decisions adopted at the session was a proposal by clubs that fines imposed on any club for rules breaches must be paid within 10 working days, failure of which all other matches of the club after the deadline would be forfeited to their opponents.
The LMC accepted the proposal, which now replaces the previous process that deducts the total fine from the club earnings at the end of the season.
The Club Chairmen, led by Barrister Isaac Danladi, commended the LMC on the management of the half season and the proactive decisions taken each time regulations were breached.
Danladi expressed the clubs’ resolve to ensure that such incidences that tend to mar otherwise exciting matches are reduced if not eliminated.
Presided over by the LMC Chairman, Shehu Dikko, the session amongst other issues also tasked the LMC to properly review the fixtures for the remaining half of the season to reduce fixture congestion,which the clubs said affected not just their finances but also the physical conditioning of their playing squad.
Dikko in his remarks harped on the need to curb the growing fans’ restiveness at match venues and challenged the Club Administrators to lead the campaign for peaceful atmosphere at match venues.
He recalled that the LMC had made it mandatory for the host club chairman and the visiting counterpart sit together in the box.
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