By Rasheed Adewuyi, New York
Former Shooting Stars Sports Club forward Golden Ajeboh has called on the leadership of the Nigeria Premier Football League to urgently improve the organisation and standard of the domestic competition, warning that the league has fallen far below its former quality.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with JerseyNumber12 on Wednesday, the ex-striker criticized the current state of the league and urged the NPFL board led by Gbenga Elegbeleye to implement reforms capable of restoring the prestige Nigerian football once enjoyed.
Ajeboh said the poor organisation of the league has discouraged him from following matches, lamenting the lack of proper television coverage compared with other African leagues.
“I don’t watch NPFL matches because of the poor organization,” he said. “We watch the Kenyan and South African leagues on SuperSport, but it is very sad that we can’t watch our own football live on television. Stakeholders should do something about this.”
The former Stationery Stores F.C. striker also raised concerns over officiating in the league, accusing referees of contributing to the widespread “win-at-home-at-all-costs” culture.
“The referees are involved in the ‘win-at-home-at-all-costs’ syndrome,” Ajeboh said. “During our time, good teams won away matches without bribing match officials. I think the organizers should do everything humanly possible to reduce favoritism and poor officiating in the NPFL. This will also help reduce hooliganism in Nigerian football.”
Incidents of crowd violence and hooliganism have increased in Nigerian domestic football in 2025 and early 2026, often triggered by controversial refereeing decisions and perceived bias, leading to clashes involving players, officials and supporters.
Ajeboh further advised the NPFL authorities to consider returning to an abridged league format, arguing that such a structure would help clubs cope with financial pressures and reduce security risks during long-distance travel.
“If the league is divided into two, it will go a long way in helping clubs solve some financial problems,” he said. “Some clubs cannot even pay their players’ salaries, yet they are expected to cover hotel and travel expenses every two weeks.”
Security concerns have increasingly affected domestic competitions, with teams sometimes facing the risk of attacks by bandits or armed robbers while travelling to away matches.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Football Federation has introduced stricter disciplinary measures to ensure compliance in domestic competitions, including a ₦1 million fine for clubs that fail to honor fixtures in the President Federation Cup.
The sanction was enforced during the 2026 edition of the tournament, with clubs that failed to appear for state-level fixtures penalized, including Kun Khalifat FC, which was recently punished for failing to honor a scheduled match.
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