NPFL 2019/2020 season: Rivers United insist they finished second, not third

Rivers United Football Club of Port Harcourt on Sunday said they still do not agree with the League Management Company (LMC) on the 2019/2020 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) final table.

Okey Kpalakwu, the club’s General Manager, disclosed this position in a statement, insisting that the club remained the team which finished in second place by the end of the season.

“The NPFL final table circulated in the media space placed Plateau United, Enyimba and Rivers United in the first, second and third places respectively.
“In that table, Rivers United and Enyimba were tied on the same number of points.

“But a totally strange/inconclusive head-to-head consideration, affected by the same force majeure, was used to place Enyimba in the second position.

“Nothing can be further from the truth, because such consideration can only exist in the imagination of those peddling the fake table.

“For emphasis and to inform discerning members of the public, we have what is internationally known and even in the rule books of LMC.

“This indicates that points are the first basis of separating teams, followed by goal difference, before head-to-head,” he said.

According to Kpalakwu, the Points Per Game (PPG) model adopted by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and LMC is a straight-forward co-efficient.

He said this is a way of dividing the total number of points with the total number of matches played as at when the league was suspended.

“This is in order to guarantee fairness to clubs that played less number of matches.

“With the application of PPG , all teams are now measured equally, erasing the scenario of whether or not any club played higher number of matches than the other,” the club official added.

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The Rivers United General Manager argued that separating the tie by goal difference was to divide number of goals scored by number of matches played to arrive at a co-efficient.

He emphasised that, based on this, it was obvious that Rivers United were the second-placed team and no amount of false narratives would deceive those who should know.

“We have already made our position known to the NFF and LMC and we expect that justice will be served without fear or favour.”

Mr Kpalakwu, however, warned that the Port Harcourt club may be compelled to explore all legitimate means available.

”This may include formal petitions to the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA), the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the Court of Arbitration in Sports (CAS) to ventilate our grievances and press for justice,” he said.

(NAN)