By Amaechi Agbo

The Nigeria Women Football League NWFL has suffered another postponement within a week, Bestchoicesports.com.ng can report.

The NWFL which was at Week 4, it could be recalled, was halted for a week to enable clubs comply with Covid-19 Protocols. However, the resumption of the league slated for Wednesday, January 20, 2021 has been postponed for one month

Announcing the one-month postponement on Sunday, the NWFL management said the additional week was due to “Irregular Covid-19 Results” submitted by clubs.

The Chairperson of the Nigeria Women Football League, Aisha Falode, at the weekend announced an additional one month postponement of the league season in a frantic bid to ensure strict compliance with COVID-19 Preventive Protocols that were established before the League started on December 9, 2020.

Falode, said from her base in Lagos that ; “The irregularities and discoveries made during the one-week postponement of the Week 5 matches to allow clubs carry out COVID-19 tests for all their players and officials led to the decision.”

She disclosed that: “Feedback from the one-week suspension to allow for COVID-19 re-testing by clubs exposed flaws in complying with the NWFL directives. After due consultations, it has been agreed that a further one-month period should be given to allow for due diligence by all the clubs and stakeholders for strict compliance. We realised that clubs were not taking enough COVID-19 protocol precautionary measures.”

Falode, who is also a board member of the Nigeria Football Federation declared that: “Clubs and stakeholders should within the one month period meet the following requirements:

1. Mandatory COVID-19 tests to be carried out at government-approved centres and hospitals. These tests must be sustained when the League resumes.
2. The full results of the tests, indicating where they were conducted should be forwarded to the NWFL secretariat in Abuja.
3. Results that are not from government – approved centres and hospitals will not be accepted and the affected clubs risk being suspended from the league.”

The NWFL Chairperson said the league board counts on the support and cooperation of all the clubs and stakeholders to make our League safe and healthy.

As at when the league was suspended for one week, only two out of 16 clubs had their Covid-19 tests certified by the league organisers.