Nigeria National League announces promotion, relegation format 

By Wale Mustapha

The organisers of Nigeria National League, has again informed clubs participating in the second tier division about the terms and regulations for promotion and demotion of teams in the current season.

The directive from the organizers is coming just few weeks into the new campaign as the ongoing abridged season gradually inch closer to the end following the annual football calendar set by the Nigeria Football Federation.

In a statement on Monday, the NNL, through its league’s communication department, explained that the Northern and Southern Conferences of the league were further broken into four sub-groups: A1, A2, A3 and A4 for the Northern region, while same format was adopted for the Southern Conference with B1, B2, B3 and B4.

The NNL rule book provides that 12 teams shall be relegated from NNL at the end of the season while, it shall receive eight from the Nationwide League One, NLO.

In the same vein, four teams shall be received from the Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL and same number promoted to the NPFL from NNL.

The promotion schedule will see the best teams (highest number of points and goals) in each of the eight sub-groups at the end of the season qualify for the NNL Super 8 Promotional play-Offs at a yet-to-be-confirm venue.

In the Super Eight Playoffs, the best four, (First four-4 teams) with the highest number of points and goals for, will pick tickets for the four slots to the apex league in Nigeria.

Conversely, NNL shall admit in return ,the last four teams demoted from the NPFL to the NNL.

“Relegation Playoffs: Firstly, it is pertinent to note that the last (Bottom) teams in each of the eight groups shall be automatically relegated to the NLO,” it added.

The statement added that the second to the last (bottom) teams in the eight groups shall go for relegation playoffs to determine the four teams to complete the 12 teams to be relegated from NNL to NLO.

NNL shall also provide suitable venue for the relegation Playoffs.