The management of Rivers United has commended the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr Sunday Dare; President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick and Chairman, League Management Company (LMC), Shehu Dikko for their determined efforts to bring the Nigerian Professional Football League to a conclusive end.
The club has also commended all other critical stakeholders in the football sector who were at the virtual meeting initiated by the NFF for adopting the Points Per Game (PPG) model out of the principle of Doctrine of Necessity to end the league.
Recall that the 2019/2020 NPFL season was suspended following the ban on all sports activities occasioned by the outbreak of Coronavirus across the world.
The General Manager of Rivers United, Chief Okey Kpalukwu stated this during a media chat with journalists in Port Harcourt Friday shortly after briefing the sponsors of the team.
Kpalukwu explained that the PPG method adopted by 18 out of 20 NPFL clubs had become imperative, owing to the fact that it was the easiest way to give every team equal opportunity based on its strength as at the time the league was suspended.
He stressed further that the PPG method is not new in the world of football as it was proposed by the management of the English Premier League (EPL) and UEFA to resolve the logjam in their respective competitions before the EPL was given the green light to resume by the British Government.
He disclosed that from the calculations of the team based on the PPG method, Rivers United will be second behind Plateau United on the basis of points and goals advantage to any other team in the NPFL.
According to him, “Going by our calculations using the PPG model, Rivers United is second. We have 1.80 points, with a goal difference of 1.87 over and above teams below us in the NPFL.”
The Rivers United GM punctured the insinuations of those saying Enyimba would be ahead of Rivers United based on head-to-head advantage given that Enyimba won against Rivers United in Aba.
“How can anybody say such? Do they know the meaning of head-to-head? It means both teams must have played two matches against each other in the same season before being able to arrive at a head-to-head scenario. In this case, there is nothing like that, so how can anybody have such hallucinations?
“More importantly, under the NPFL regulations, if any two or more clubs have scored the same number of points, their position in the table shall be determined on goal difference, the same decision as CAF and FIFA in their rules guiding club competitions and the last FIFA World Cup respectively.
“It is not in our character to predetermine issues that are being processed by appropriate authorities, but we find ourselves duty-bound to prevent mischievous elements from spreading false news and unwarranted insinuations to deceive the unsuspecting public.
“We are convinced that the NFF and LMC know the truth and we are certain that they cannot be misled and distracted by those who do not mean well for our football,” Kpalukwu stated.
