By Ayoola Adeleke
The organizers of the Nigeria National League (NNL) on Monday September 6th, 2021, in Enugu, released the pairings and full fixtures of the 2021 playoffs of teams from both the Northern and Southern conferences of the league, tagged ‘Super 8’
The 5-day playoffs have the Northern teams grouped together in group A and the Southern teams in group B where the eventual group winners and runners up will book their automatic qualification to the premier league and gain ticket to fight for the second division trophy while the third and fourth placed teams in both groups will wait for another season to relaunch their bids to play in the country’s apex football league.
Gombe United and El-Kanemi warriors of Maiduguri will lift the veil off the competition as they battle each other by 1pm on the first day of the tournament.
Five times premier league winners, Shooting Stars of Ibadan will kickstart their pursuit for the NPFL ticket against two times top flight league winners, Bendel Insurance, who came second to Remo Stars FC in group B2 of the regular abridged league season.
Remo Stars will slog it out with Ekiti United in their own first game of the playoffs as DMD fc will battle Niger Tornadoes in the 5th game of the day 1 encounters.
The groupings and full draws.
*Group A (Northern Conference)*
Gombe United
DMD FC
Niger Tornadoes
El-Kanemi Warriors
*Group B (Southern Conference)*
Bendel Insurance
Ekiti United
Remo Stars
3SC
FIXTURES & TIME
Match Day 1
Gombe United Vs El-kanemi Warriors 1pm
Bendel Insurance Vs 3SC 3pm
DMD vs Niger Tornadoes 5pm
Ekiti United Vs Remo Stars 7pm
Match Day 2
El-Kanemi Warriors Vs Niger Tornadoes 8:30am
3SC Vs Remo Stars 11am
Gombe United Vs DMD FC 4pm
Bendel Insurance Vs Ekiti United 6pm
Match Day 3
DMD Vs El-kanemi Warriors 8:30am
Ekiti United Vs 3SC 11am
Niger Tornadoes Vs Gombe United 4pm
Remo Stars Vs Bendel Insurance 6pm
According to the organizers of the competition, the matches will be beamed live on the Nigerian National Television Authority, NTA, from the first match till the end of the playoffs.
#Ayoola Adeleke