The NPFL has so many problems that are facing it but one problem that has grown to become an uncurbable disease is Insecurity and Crowd Violence ravaging the League. Many incidents of crowd violence have been witnessed in the past, and many lovers of Nigerian Football are worried and are asking questions.
For many years, players and officials have been attacked by fans, and to make matters worse, clubs administrators are now prone to get injured so more so that even an NPFL match had to be suspended for peace and tranquility to reign. The saddening part of it is that it’s either the LMC either ignore this meaningless chaos or give minimal sanctions to perpetrators of this evil.
So far this season, the NPFL has witnessed three major crowd violence and it’s unfortunate that in 2020, as other African nations are developing their football on a daily basis, Nigerians are ranting over insecurity and crowd violence at our various match centers. Truly, the Shehu Dikko led LMC and its officials should cover their faces in shame for not putting up measures to eradicate this humiliating and degrading aspect of the Nigeria Football.
Just when we thought crowd violence will not be witnessed again in the league this season after the fallout between the Fans of Kaduna United and Kano Pillars in January, crowd violence reared it’s ugly head again Abia on Sunday when the two clubs from the state were having their matchday 20 fixture.
According to reports, this brouhaha was bound to happen as the officials of Abia Warriors were denied entry into the stadium but sanity was restored after Enyimba’s chairman (Anyansi-Agu) intervened. But that sanity only lasted for a short while as the fans of the two opposing teams were seen clashing with each other. In the first instant, The referee overlooked the situation but the match was later halted on the orders of the match commissioner.
READ ALSO: NPFL Violence: A Deadly Plague That Could Ruin The League’s Development
Scores of people including the Chairman of Enyimba and Emeka Iyama were left injured after the brawl. Agu who only tried to bring about peace amongst the fans was eventually stoned by unknown “fan” and was seen escorted out of the stadium.
Like I’ve once opined, this gorry scenario will continue to erupt at our match centers if some people/clubs are not used as scapegoats. The main reason this is still happening is obviously that the LMC seems to be handling it with levity. Many innocent lives have been lost due to crowd violence in NPFL matches and this does not in any way put Nigeria in a good picture in the faces of the rest of the countries in the world.
Playing matches behind closed doors, points deduction or players’ suspension will not put a lasting solution to this problem. Until a stiffer punishment is meted out to the unscrupulous beings disrupting Nigerian Football, the league will forever remain with the tag of “underdeveloped league” – Will there ever be a stop to this mess?
If There are Solutions, What are They?
Jail Term for every Perpetrator of Violence at Matchcenters.
It’s definitely not enough to slam fines on clubs that her fans have erred; jail term should be added to the punishment given to these evildoers. William Shakespeare once said, “any mercy that forgives a murderer, encourages another murder” in this case, it’s really not a case of a murderer but whatever mercy that forgives an engineer of someone’s wounds, gives room for more of the unfortunate incident to happen.
The current LMC Board Should Be Dissolved
The LMC has proven over time to be incapable of finding solutions to the utmost level of insecurity of players, officials and some fans going to the different match centers in the country. There’s no need for maintaining a failed institution. A change in the hierarchy of the LMC is needed and the time is now!
