The Nigeria Women Football League has announced the postponement of all Week 5 NWFL Premiership fixtures by one week to enable all 14 clubs complete Covid-19 testing for players and staff.

Week 5 fixtures will now be played on Wednesday, 20 January, NWFL Chief Operating Officer, Mrs Faith Ben-Anuge said.

NWFL chairperson Aisha Falode said the postponement will enable the collation and validation of Covid-19 tests being conducted by the Premiership clubs, half of whom she said have failed to present their results as required.

“The NWFL does not want to take 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,” Ms Falode said.

“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.”

Ms Falode warned clubs to adhere strictly to the league’s directives for testing including ensuring all tests are conducted at approved centres as failure to comply will attract strict penalties.

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

“The board has given enough time to the clubs to complete the test and send results with proof (pictures) from government approved test centres, to the Secretariat by mail and hard copies (original) on or before Friday 15th January 2021.”