The uncertainty of when the 2018/2019 Nigeria Professional Football League abridged season will begin has made many clubs have decided to begin intensive training ahead of the coming season.

The League Management company conducted the draws for the abridged league on Tuesday, November 20, 2018, putting the ball in motion for teams to start necessary preparations.

On Matchday 1 of the season, Niger Tornadoes face Abia Warriors on home soil, a match which promises to be a cracker. And the Ikon Allah have decided to take their training up a notch.

In a tweet released by Andrew Randa (@RandaAndrew) who observed the team’s training, the Niger State sponsored club is seen training on a pitch that has forgotten what it feels to have grass around it. It would almost be safe to say that the pitch could pass for a Beach Soccer turf save the volume of sand and the size of the pitch.

Andrew also noted that some of the players trained using jerseys of foreign clubs, Nigeria National team old jersey and an away strip of Kada Stars FC jersey, which is understandably hard to figure out for a team which claims to play in a “Professional” League. Where are the training kits? “Dem go bring our training kit next week” was the reply.

Although the League Management Company have tried to implement a level of professionalism into all clubs playing in the top-flight, there seems to be hardly any form of improvement from these clubs.

Niger Tornadoes are a football team which originally is meant to play on lush green grass because they are not a beach soccer team. But when you find this sort of incident in your country’s football, you wonder if this is what professionalism is or what this team will take to the continent if this is the type of training it “enjoys”.

The sad part is, Niger Tornadoes are not the only team that trains in this manner or have limited kits for proper training. Many other clubs also operate in this way and someone should be held responsible.