Nigeria postpones women league games over coronavirus tests

Week five matches of the Nigeria Women Premier League have been postponed by one week due to the inability of all the 14 NWFL Premiership clubs to meet up with the directives on COVID-19 tests for players and team officials.

President of the Nigeria Women Football League, Aisha Falode, in a statement, on Monday, said the postponement was to accommodate collation and validation of the COVID-19 tests being conducted by the Premiership clubs.

The PUNCH reports that Bayelsa Queens are topping the league with 12 points from four matches.

Falode said, “The NWFL do not want to take a risk with any of the clubs 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 centres sent in by the clubs from the Federal Ministry of Health and the relevant state’s Ministry of Health, going by the reports that some clubs are going to unapproved centres to conduct the test.

“Tests from unapproved centres will be rejected after verification and the clubs involved suspended from the league.

“The postponement of the league by one week is due to the tasking process of collation and validation. Because of this, the board of the NWFL found imperative to postpone the Week 5 matches to allow the Secretariat complete their job on the ongoing Covid-19 test on clubs concerned.”

She noted that had been given a fresh deadline to complete the test and send results with proof (pictures) from government-approved test centres on Friday, January 15.

Falode, who is also a board member of the Nigeria Football Federation, said any club found wanting at the end of the exercise will be suspended from the league indefinitely.

The NWFL Chief Operating Officer, Mrs. Faith Ben-Anuge, noted that the postponed Week 5 matches will now be played on Wednesday, January 20, 2021.

Source: punchng.com