NPFL season 2025/2026: Here we go, again

With Remo Stars FC of Ikenne still basking in the euphoria of its first title win in the elite cadre of Nigerian football in the 2024/2025 season, the hierarchy of Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) has finalised arrangements for the kick-off of the 2025/2006 is what has now steadily become a seamless administration of the league since it took a new turn three seasons ago under the leadership of Hon Gbenga Elegbeleye.

The NPFL board has embarked on reviews of the ended season since May, propounding theory and practice that aim at moving the league to the desired standards that could see the participants and stakeholders compete with their counterparts in other established leagues in Africa and across the world. At every turn in the reviews, professionalism has remained the key word on which continuous progress is hinged.

But the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the league board, scheduled for Abuja on July 28, would ratify all decisions taken at meetings involving the stakeholders since the last season ended a couple of months ago. Chief Operating Officer of the NPFL, Mr. Davidson Owumi, says the gathering would highlight efforts that have so far been expended on the “way forward” for the league.

According to Owumi, although the fixtures for the new season will be unveiled on the day, the main agenda will be ratification of August 22 as the kick-off date for the new season, as well as the various reports that will be presented at the AGM, even as the framework for the season’s fixtures will also be discussed.

Board members of the NPFL, led by Elegbeleye, would also meet with the managements of the 20 clubs that played in the last season, four of which would be attending their last meeting, having been relegated, while the new four managements whose teams have gained promotion to the premier league would be admitted.

Owumi also said a number of former Nigerian internationals would add glamour to the event that would be declared open by the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau.

Perhaps, no one is more excited for the coming season than the captain of Kano Pillars FC, Rabiu Ali. As the record oldest player in the league, 45 on September 27, he says he has yet to decide to call it a day. “I feel as I have felt in the previous seasons and, like my teammates, I can’t wait for the season to start,” Ali, who is in his 16th straight season at the Kano club he joined from Nasarawa United in 2009, said.

The veteran midfielder also says Pillars have begun to enjoy a new lease of life under the Nigeria international, Ahmed Musa, who featured prominently for the club in the last season before he was appointed Chairman by the Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuf, as the season wound up.

“Our chairman is bringing his experience and international contacts to bear on the players’ welfare, and we are beginning to feel the impact, which I believe would motivate us to achieve great things this season,” the captain said.

In Bauchi State, it is still jubilation galore as Wikki Tourist FC returned to the Premier League after a two-season absence. Already, the state Governor, Bala Muhammed, has sent congratulations to the team’s management over its latest promotion, an indication that he is primed to support the club to achieve great heights in the top flight.

Chairman of the Bauchi State Football Association, Mr. Pascal Patrick, says the association would do all it can to ensure that Wikki stays strong in the league. “We worked so hard at making the team compete strongly in the promotion play-off, and we are delighted that the efforts paid off with the NPFL ticket. We are back now where we truly belong and ready to give the new season a good shot. Patrick, a former Nigeria international who also starred in the Bauchi club in the early 1990s, however,r declined, promising a title win on Wikki’s return. “All I can say at the moment is that we will compete very well and then see where that takes us in the end,” the Super Eagles’ Team Coordinator also said.

Elegbeleye pledged an “improved package” for the league, especially in match officiating, which he says would unfold as the new season gets going. “Ultimately, I would like to see the current league champions Remo Stars as well as Rivers United, Abia Warriors, Ikorodu City and Kwara United perform well on the continent because this would boost the image of the NPFL in addition to paving the way for some of the outstanding players to get invited to the Super Eagles,” he said.

The promise held by the 2025/2026 season would begin to unfold on August 22. It can only be hoped that the stakeholders would work in unison to ensure the 35-year-old professional league makes an unprecedented difference this term.