The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has advised the League Management Company (LMC) to ensure the commencement of the 2018/2019 season not later than 13th January 2019.

This was contained in a statement the NFF Emergency Committee released on Friday, in reaction to letters received from Clubs that qualified for the Super 8 Tournament of the Nigeria National League (NNL) that their teams are depleted and therefore, they do not have enough personnel to prosecute the Super 8 as earlier scheduled, which would have enabled the NPFL to commence on 30th December 2018.

The NNL and the NPFL have been embroiled in promotion battle, the lower league claiming the right to promote eight teams since the top tier refused to relegate any team for the new season.

The NFF has now broken the ice between the two leagues by giving the LMC the go ahead to commence the 2018/2019 season with no concrete decisions taken by the different parties involved.

The three Clubs that showed up in Aba as directed would each receive a compensation of the sum of N2,000,000 each, while the matter of the five that failed to show up would be referred to the relevant NFF committee to deal with.