By Daily Sports on January 21, 2020

Last Wednesday, January 15 2020 to be precise, I was following the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) match between hosts Enyimba and visiting Heartland of Owerri via the Facebook page of Enyimba. At the end of the game in which Enyimba bowed to Heartland 0-2, the comments section was full of bitterness from Enyimba fans. Some called their team a disgrace, others bemoaned the sack of the former coach Usman Abdallah while calling on the club to appoint an experienced coach. Others blamed the management and the recruitment process of the Peoples Elephants going into the season.

What was pleasing though was that there were no reports of violence at the Enyimba International Stadium after the game as the time fans accepted the result and didn’t resort to acts of physically assaulting match officials and players.

That same Wednesday, two other away wins were recorded in the NPFL. Kwara United went away to shock Akwa United 2-0 in Uyo while Rangers of Enugu beat Warri Wolves 2-1 in the latter’s Warri Township Stadium.

Out of the 10 games played on that midweek, away teams picked points in five of the matches.

There is a good and healthy trend this season of teams being able to go away and secure wins and draws, unlike in the past when away draws and wins was a real rarity.

What is responsible for this? Well, it simply has to do with the fact that the Nigeria league referees are more upright in their officiating of games.

It also means that there must have been an improvement in overall transparency of the league administration in the areas of monitoring referees to ensure they are not biased and also improving security in stadia as well as seriousness in meting out sanctions to teams and their supporters so take the law into their own hands when home matches don’t favour them.

The consequence of the unpredictability of league results nowadays in the NPFL is that it is more interesting to follow. When the results of matches are not a foregone conclusion, where the home teams are always expected to win by hook or crook, then people’s interests in how league battles unfold become more heightened.

So, in terms of fairness and transparency, has the Nigerian league caught up with the more developed leagues of the world? Well, as the western saying goes, a swallow does not make a summer.

We have to watch and see if this positive reviews that the Nigerian league is getting now sustains till the end of the season and into subsequent seasons. But we seem to be turning a positive corner nonetheless and its pleasing to note.

I dream of the day Nigerians will have more interests in going to local stadiums to watch local league matches instead of relying alone on the viewing center to provide them with the pleasure of football games.

Haaland: A hat trick that was not a hat trick

Borrusia Dortmund’s new striker Erling Haaland announced his arrival in his new club with 3 goals against Augsburg in the German Bundesliga with Dortmund winning the game 5-3.

For most of us in Nigeria and some other countries like England, the 19-year-old Norway international has bagged a hat trick. But in Germany where he is playing his club football he is considered not to have actually scored a hat trick despite netting three goals.

Confused? Here’s why. For one to score a hat trick in Germany, the three goals must come in a sequence and all of the goals must be scored in one half.

Via Soccernet: “Haaland scored three goals against Augsburg. He even scored them all in one half. But he was denied a “flawless” hat trick by England international Jadon Sancho. Haaland came on as a 56th-minute substitute, and Sancho set him up for his first goal just three minutes later. Before he had time to digest opening his account for his new club, Haaland was unmarked in front of goal during a Dortmund counter-attack, but this time Sancho opted to score himself rather than the pass to make it 3-3.

“Soon enough, Thorgan Hazard was in a similar position, but instead of shooting teed up his new teammate for the second of his three goals. Marco Reus then set Haaland up for his third.”

Despite not having being considered as having scored a “proper hat trick” Halaand was presented with a dreierpack (triple pack) award for his three goals after the game.

•PHOTO: Erling Haaland

Source Daily Sports

Posted January 21, 2020

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