Nigeria Premier League: NPL Is Cash Trapped
A crippling cash crisis that is facing the Nigeria Premier League, NPL, may force the competition to be temporarily halted, MTNFootball.com has scooped.
The indemnities for match officials are unlikely to be paid for the second week running as a result of this cash crunch, while NPL secretariat staffers are now being owed salaries for three months.
The monthly wage bill of the secretariat is about N2 million (about $13,000).
An NPL board meeting has, therefore, been called for tomorrow in Abuja to urgently tackle this major crisis.
The claims of match officials totalling over N3 million a week have so far gone unpaid because one of the marketing agents that has been footing part of this bill refused to make the routine weekly payment apparently as a consequence of the title sponsorship row that has torn the NPL apart.
A top source told MTNFootball.com: “The weekly remittance of N2.5m, being part of one of the NPL’s commercial properties was not done last week. And this week, the same looks to be the case.
“The indemnities of the match officials will therefore most likely not be paid for a second week running.â€
Last season, the NPL owed match officials about N10m as a result of unpaid indemnities and other related expenses.
The Nigeria Referees Association, NRA, insisted they will not feature in the NPL matches and this impasse was only resolved when part of this debt was cleared.
Thirteen rounds of matches have so far being played since the league kicked off for the 2010/2011 season in November.
Dolphin of Port Harcourt lead the table with 27 points, while Sunshine Stars of Akure are a point behind.
Enyimba are the defending champions of the 20-team annual competition.
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