NPFL: Agege Stadium To Host Super Six Tourney

The League Management Company (LMC) has announced that the Agege Township Stadium will host the post-season playoffs, the Super Six tournament, where the 2018/2019 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) champions will emerge.

The Super Six, which features the top three teams from Groups A and B of the just concluded 2018/2019 abridged league season will be played in a league format with three matches taking place at two days intervals.

Enugu Rangers, Lobi Stars, and Enyimba from Group A and Akwa United, Kano Pillars and FC Ifeanyiubah from Group B are the participating teams.

The tournament which will kick off on June 4 will also determine the country’s two representatives to the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup, with the top two qualifyings for the former and the third-placed team the latter.

LMC chairman Shehu Dikko said the Muhammadu Dikko Stadium in Katsina will serve as a fall back option to host the Super Six in the event that the Agege Stadium becomes untenable.

He also disclosed that with the regular season concluded, the top goalscorer award will be decided based on goals scored in the regular season.

There had been some confusion as to whether goals scored in the Super Six would count towards a player’s total in determining the league’s top marksman.

Akwa United’s Mfon Udoh and Sunusi Ibrahim of Nasarawa United both finished the regular season tied on 10 goals apiece.

The LMC rulebook prescribes two tiebreakers for such a situation: the player with the fewest penalty kicks is considered first and in the event, both players are still tied, then the one with the most assists scoops the award.

Both players scored two penalties each although the unreliable nature of record keeping by the LMC means their assists numbers aren’t clear.

The top scorer award has become a lot more coveted after an indigenous firm, Eunisell Group, attached monetary rewards to the trophy.

Eunisell promised #250,000 for each goal scored this season, an improvement on the #200,000 per goal awarded to last season’s top scorer Junior Lokosa, who pocketed #3.5m for his 19 goals.

NPFL SUPER SIX FIXTURE LIST

MATCHDAY 1 FIXTURES (JUNE 4, 2019):

Enyimba vs Enugu Rangers – 3pm
Kano Pillars vs Akwa United- 5pm
FC Ifeanyiubah vs Lobi Stars – 7pm.

MATCHDAY 2 FIXTURES (JUNE 6, 2019):

Akwa United vs FC Ifeanyiubah – 3pm
Enugu Rangers vs Lobi Stars – 5pm
Kano Pillars vs Enyimba – 7pm.

MATCHDAY 3 FIXTURES (JUNE 8, 2019):

Kano Pillars vs FC Ifeanyiubah – 3pm
Lobi Stars vs Enyimba – 5pm
Akwa United vs Enugu Rangers – 7pm.

MATCHDAY 4 FIXTURES (JUNE 10, 2019):

Enugu Rangers vs Kano Pillars – 3pm
Akwa United vs Lobi Stars – 5pm
Enyimba vs FC Ifeanyiubah – 7pm.

MATCHDAY 5 FIXTURES (JUNE 12, 2019):

FC Ifeanyiubah vs Enugu Rangers – 3pm
Enyimba vs Akwa United – 5pm
Lobi Stars vs Kano Pillars – 7pm.