By Akeem Busari

Ahead of Friday, May 30 kick off of the Bet9ja Ekiti Football League, organisers of the league have disclosed that they are overwhelmed by the large number of clubs who have registered to participate on the 2019 league.

According to the Secretary of the Committee, Idowu B.S, an unprecedented 60 clubs have registered to participate in the competition. And this has led the organising committee to restrategise on the best way to host a proper competition. 

The competition which is sponsored by Nigeria’s foremost betting company, Bet9ja, would feature teams drawn from across the 16 local government areas of the state.

He further opened up that the competition was originally meant for forty (40) teams but due to pressure and plea from club owners to accommodate their teams thus the expansion.

“We didn’t have any choice than to push the kick off date forward to Thursday May, 30th, to allow us prepare for the extra teams.

“You know our plan was for 40 teams but now we have 60 teams after we agreed to allow the registration of 4 more teams earlier in the week” he explained.

Furthermore, we have increased the number of teams that will qualify to play at the league proper to 16.

The 16 teams shall be divided into 4 groups and they will play on home and away basis. The winner of each group will go on to play at the final play offs which shall take place at the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium in September.