NPFL Sets Late August Start for New Season
The 2026/27 NPFL season is expected to start in late August with record prize money and four promoted clubs.
The Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) is expected to begin its 2026/27 season in late August after stakeholders agreed on a proposed kickoff date.
Officials tentatively approved the weekend of 27–29 August during a meeting in Abuja attended by representatives of the National Sports Commission (NSC), the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), NPFL leadership, and club owners. The proposed calendar sets the 2026/27 NPFL season to run until 28 May 2027, while also making room for matches in the President’s Federation Cup to ensure a more organised domestic football schedule.
A major highlight of the new NPFL season is the record-breaking prize money for the league champions. Earlier, National Sports Commission Chairman Shehu Dikko announced that the winners of the 2026/27 NPFL title will receive ₦1 billion, the biggest prize ever awarded to champions in the history of Nigeria’s top-flight league.
The increased reward is part of wider reforms aimed at improving the NPFL’s commercial value, making the competition more competitive, and attracting greater private investment into Nigerian club football.
The 2026/27 NPFL season will also welcome four newly promoted clubs following the conclusion of the 2025/26 Nigeria National League campaign. Sporting Lagos, Inter Lagos, Ranchers Bees, and Doma United earned promotion after securing places in the top division. They will replace the four clubs that were relegated at the end of the previous season.
Defending champions Enugu Rangers will begin the new campaign as the team to beat after winning a record-extending ninth NPFL title by finishing top of the table in the 2025/26 season.
Do you think the 2026/27 NPFL season and its record prize money will raise the standard of Nigerian club football?
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