Abuja- The 2014/2015 Glo Premier League Pre-Season Tournament will hold from Jan. 22 to Feb. 2 in Abuja with the national under-23 and national under-20 teams as invited participants.
In a statement on Wednesday, the League Management Company (LMC), organisers of the event, said the national teams’ invitation was at the instance of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA).
The LMC, which organises the Glo Premier League, said the event was part of NFA’s evolving plans to adequately prepare the teams for the continental championships beginning from February.
The pre-season tournament, an annual fixture in the calendar of the LMC, will feature the top three clubs on the log of the 2013/14 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season.
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It will also feature the Federation Cup winners, and will serve as tune-up for the clubs to test their newly signed-on players.
“The tournament will also afford them the opportunity of perfecting their competitive game plans for the continental club championships due to commence in February,’’ the statement by Harry Iwuala, LMC”s Media Consultant, said.
The four clubs are league winners Kano Pillars FC, Enyimba International FC of Aba, Warri Wolves FC and Dolphins FC of Port Harcourt, runners-up to Enyimba in the Federation Cup.
The statement said the tournament would be played on a round- robin basis with each team playing five matches over five matchdays within a 10-day period.
Accordingly, three matches will be played on each matchday.
The statement further disclosed that all the matches of the Glo Premier League Super 4 would enjoy live coverage from the LMC Broadcast partners, SuperSport.
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“Though this is our usual pre-season activity, it is happening this time with a marked difference.
“This is because we will be having the national teams, the Dream Team and the Flying Eagles, joining the traditional four clubs representing Nigeria in the two CAF club competitions.
“They will all be participating in the tournament with the sole objective of ensuring that the six participating teams are prepared adequately for their continental engagements starting next month,’’ LMC’s Chief Operating Officer, Salihu Abubakar, said in the statement.
It added that Abubakar also disclosed that the league’s pre-season activities would further include capacity building workshops for club captains, coaches, medical officers, club Media Officers, managers and Match Commissioners.
“One of the league’s topical issues presently is the funding of clubs in the reality of dwindling government revenue earnings at all levels.
“There is a great opportunity to educate the club managers/owners on alternative sources of funding, especially the revenue funding opportunities available through Community Ownership of clubs”, Abubakar further explained.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Enyimba International won last season’s tournament which also featured Kano Pillars, Bayelsa United and Warri Wolves.(NAN)
