Lobi Stars have been crowned champions of the Nigeria Professional Football League for the 2017/18 after the league governing body LMCNPFL and the clubs agreed to end the season with 14 games left to play.
The decision was taken following an emergency meeting in Abuja where the LMC and 20 NPFL clubs agreed to end the league and declare Lobi Stars winner in order to meet up with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) October 15 deadline for registration of clubs for the Champions League and Confederation Cup.
The NPFL could not resume as planned after going on break on the eve of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia no thanks to the leadership crisis which rocked the Nigeria Football Federation
The Crises saw the Sports minister take sides with self-acclaimed NFF President Chris Giwa as they struggled to wrest control of the NFF from FIFA recognized president Amaju Pinnick.
It took the intervention of the federal government to resolve the situation and save the nation from a FIFA ban.
Lobi Stars who occupy top spot in the table with 43 points from 24 matches have been declared champions and will now represent Nigeria in the CAF Champions League.
Other decisions taking at the meeting include the resolution that no club will be relegated but four clubs however will be promoted from the Nigeria National League to form a 24-team 2018/19 season which will be abridged into two groups of 12 each.
Also the Aiteo Cup is proposed to kick off on September 5 with the round of 64 and will eventually resort to group format at the round of 16 with the winners going on to represent Nigeria in the CAF Confederation Cup
The 2018/19 season kicks off in November.
