Bayelsa United, Bendel Insurance, El-Kanemi Warriors and Doma United will again wait till November before facing off in the Nigeria National League Super 4 play-off, no thanks to flooding that has ravaged some parts of Bayelsa State, where the tournament was scheduled to hold.
The season-ending event was rescheduled to hold between October 25 and 29 at the Samson Siasia Stadium, Yenagoa after floods forced the initial date of October 16 to 22 to be changed.
NNL announced the new change in date in a statement signed by its Head of Media and Communications, Amar Ignis.
“The Nigeria National league has placed an indefinite hold on the season-ending Super 4 play-off tournament scheduled for Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital. The flood in Bayelsa is not completely subsided and the Federal Government intervention team has begun work to give citizens a breath of hope following the devastating effects of the flood.”
While efforts are on to cushion the effect of the flood, the league body also assured that Bayelsa State was keen on hosting the tournament.
The statement read in part, “While intervention work is ongoing, the Bayelsa State Government says it is still committed to hosting the Super 4 as it keeps surveillance on the situation. Coming out from a recent meeting where the situation was assessed, hosts Bayelsa and the NNL management team strongly think the Super 4 will be more feasible in the month of November 2022.”
One of the participating clubs, Doma United of Gombe, confirmed the postponement via its Facebook page, revealing that it will continue to keep its players in shape with an ongoing pre-season tournament in Abuja.
The league body through its Head of Operations Emmanuel Adesanya also sought the understanding of the clubs involved in the play-offs.
“Operations head of the Nigeria National League, Mr. Emmanuel Adesanya, again, has tendered an unreserved apology to the four clubs in the Super 4: Bendel Insurance, Bayelsa United, Doma United of Gombe and El-Kanemi Warriors as well as stakeholders for the inconveniences this fresh shift in date, again would cause.”
The four clubs qualified for the play-offs after emerging top-two in the southern and northern conferences of the NNL, on top of gaining promotion to the Nigeria Professional Football League.