Boma Iyaye, Rivers Sports Commissioner has quenched rumors of the State-owned club (Rivers United FC) agreement with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on the 2019/2020 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) with club at loggerheads with NFF and the League Management Company (LMC) over the usage of the Point-Per-Game (PPG) system to determine the top finishers in the unconcluded 2019/2020 NPFL season.
Rivers United was declared third-place finisher after the uncompleted competition was ended with the PPG system by the LMC but they instead insisted they should have been declared second-place finishers as Iyaye in a statement issued by Daniel Nwankwoala, the Sports Ministry’s Press Officer, said the club would not accept what they appropriated as “injustice”.
He quenched reports of Agreement with the NFF, LMC, stating that, “at no time did the Ministry or officials of Rivers United concede to the NFF or the LMC on their protest for a second place on the NPFL table. The insinuations being made in the media do not reflect the true position of what transpired at a virtual meeting with the NFF.”
He said there was a virtual meeting which involved him, NFF President Amaju Pinnick, LMC Chairman Shehu Dikko, Ministry of Sports’ Permanent Secretary Honour Sirawoo, and the club’s General Manager, Okey Kpalukwu.
“We only looked at the club’s position to the NFF and LMC. Rivers United did not at any time agree with the NFF on anything and that definitely is not what transpired at the meeting.
“During the virtual meeting, there were lots of arguments on our stand, which is that we remain in the second position which we rightfully deserve. We x-rayed the situation in other leagues across the world, in the realization that FIFA and CAF do not interfere in the domestic operations of its affiliates.”
