More NPFL Clubs Get LMC’s Clearance on Payment of Players’ Salary

Seven other Glo Premier League clubs would receive the second installment of the Basic Award from the League Management Company (LMC), having met requirements on payment of players’s minimum wage on Friday.

Sunshine Stars, Warri Wolves, El-Kanemi Warriors, Rangers International, Heartland, Lobi Stars and Enyimba have tendered proof of payment of salary for players as directed by the league governing body.

The newly cleared seven are now eligible to transact business in the on-going mid-season transfer window

They join champions Kano Pillars, Abia Warriors and Bayelsa United; the leading trio on submission of all necessary documents justifying players’s salary payment as confirmed by the LMC on Tuesday.

The NPFL Body Has Made Players' Welfare One of Its Top Priorities Since Inception.
The NPFL Body Has Made Players’ Welfare One of Its Top Priorities Since Inception.

The three clubs earlier certified to have complied with the Nigeria league regulations have now been paid the second installment of the Basic Award, according to the Chief Operating Officer of the LMC, Salihu Abubakar.

Abubakar said: “We have created these procedures to protect players from the previous tales of unpaid salary arrears and will be working with the clubs to ensure overall improvement of players’ welfare.”

He also disclosed that the other clubs will get their Basic Award as soon as comprehensive verification of their document is completed.

Players’s welfare has become a recurrent hindrance slowing down the growth of the NPFL.

All 20 clubs of the Nigeria Professional Football League had at the start of the league season received N10m each from the LMC as the first installment of Basic Award and were encouraged to continue complying with Sections 8.1.1 and 9.46 of the 2013/14 Rules and Frameworks to stand the chance for further increment.

The LMC further intimated it has also been covering hotel accommodation and match travel costs of all match officials since the 2012/13 season, so as to relieve clubs of additional expenses.

Meanwhile, Gombe United and Giwa FC are understood to have submitted documents that showed they were still owing their players the newly accredited N150,000 minimum wage and are yet to be certified.