Seven months after the last match was played in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), the new season kicked off last week Sunday the 13th day of January 2019. The joy, the action, the great moments in which the fans has missed will return and dominate every match venue once again.

The Nigeria Premier League was put to a stand still after 24 rounds of games due to administrative problems from the league management. The league took a break for everyone to get involved in last year's Russia 2018 World Cup. The league couldn't find it feet again after the break and on the 31th of August 2018, the NPFL broke the unexpected news that gave rise to many controversies as they call the 2018 season to a close. This conclusion came due to the fact that the NPFL didn't see any possibility of rounding up all league games before November thereby summiting names for both the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup.

No champions were awarded and the last four teams were not relegated.

Lobi Stars emerged Nigerian representative in 2018/2019 CAF Champions League after remaining league leaders at the time of the suspension.

Four teams gain promotion from the Nigeria National League and 24 teams will compete in the 2019 Nigeria professional Football League season including 20 teams from the previous season and 4 teams which gain promotion from the Nigeria National League to the professional League.

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How the Four Teams Got Promoted

The Nigeria Football House asked the lower league organisers to ensure the playoff to determine four promoted clubs to the NPFL.

The four teams that got promoted were Bendel Insurance of Benin, Gombe United, Kada Stars and Remo Stars. They got this promotion after coming up top and runners up in the Southern Conference group and Northern Conference group in the NNL Super 8 playoffs hosted in Aba, Abia State from December 14 to 20, 2018.

Remo Stars, Shooting Stars, Bendel Insurance and Delta Force qualified for the playoffs from the Southern Conference.

While from the Northern Conference had Gombe United, Real Stars, Kada Stars, and Kogi United in which they will take on each other in a round-robin format.

Kada Stars came top of the Northern Conference ahead of Gombe United with only goals difference after both clubs tie up with 5 points each.

For the Southern Conference Bendel Insurance of Benin finished the group unbeaten to top the group with 9 points as Remo Stars came behind on the second spot with 6 points after three games.

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Winners And Losers

Player like Junior Lokosa if Lobi Stars was deeply disappointed with the management ruling as he was few steps close to breaking the NPFL highest goal scorer records of 23 has he was able to score a total of 19 goals in just 21 for Lobi Stars.

The 2019 season will not see Lokosa again as he has completed a move to Espérance Sportive de Tunis signing a 2 years contract.

To club like Heartland FC of Owerri were so happy that they were given another life line to rewrite their wrongs.The Owerri's representative in the professional League were only able to get only 5 wins in 24 games drawing 8 and loosing 11 good game having just 20 points.

The 2019 season has seen Heartland firing up as they got 2 wins from 3 games with a +3 goal difference. The scrambled League season was truly a blessing in disguise to Heartland Fc.

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Below is the summary of the NPFL results for the first three rounds of games.

MATCHDAY 1

Sun 13/01/19

Wikki Tourist vs Bendel Insurance (PSTP)

Rivers United vs Remo Stars (PSTP)

Enugu Rangers vs Niger Tornadoes (PSTP)

Lobi Stars vs Katsina United (PSTP)

Kwara United 1 - 1 Sunshine Stars

Enyimba 2 - 0 MFM

Yobe Stars vs Gombe United (PSTP)

Go Round vs Kada City (PSTP)

Nasarawa United 1 - 0 Abia Warriors

Plateau United 0 - 0 Ifeanyi Uba

Kano Pillars 1 - 0 Heartland

Akwa United 0 - 1 El Kanemi Warriors

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MATCHDAY 2

Wed. 16/01/19

Niger Tornadoes 1 - 1 Rivers United

MFM 2 - 0 Kwara United

Katsina United vs Enugu Rangers (PSTP)

Sunshine Stars vs Lobi Stars (PSTP)

Bendel Insurance vs Enyimba (PSTP)

Remo Stars vs Wikki Tourist (PSTP)

Abia Warriors 1 - 2 Go Round

Kada City vs Yobe Stars (PSTP)

Ifeanyi Uba 1 - 0 Nasarawa United

Heartland 3 - 0 Plateau United

Gombe United vs Akwa United (PSTP)

Thu 17/01/19

El Kanemi Warriors 2 - 1 Kano Pillars

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TODAY: MATCHDAY 3

Sun 20/01/19

Wikki Tourist 2 - 1 Niger Tornadoes

Rivers United vs Katsina United (PSTP)

Enugu Rangers vs Sunshine Stars (PSTP)

Lobi Stars vs MFM (PSTP)

Kwara United 3 - 2 Enyimba

Remo Stars 1 - 1 Bendel Insurance

Yobe Stars vs Abia Warriors (PSTP)

Go Round 0 - 0 Ifeanyi Uba

Nasarawa United 0 - 1 Heartland

Plateau United 2 - 0 El Kanemi Warriors

Kano Pillars 1 - 1 Akwa United

Kada City 2 - 1 Gombe United

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Thank you for staying tuned.

Please drop your comments below.

Pic: 3D Logo edited by akudozen

@akudozen