Eight champions, the Smart City FC (Lagos State), Madiba FC (Lagos State), FC Ebedei (Ogun State), Police Barretta FC (Gombe), Kun Khalifa FC (Imo State), Aspire FC (Anambra State), Jnr Danburan (Katsina State) and Mailatarki Care FC of the Federal Capital Territory, will slug it out in the play-off to determine the overall winner of the NLO 2022 season.

According to the adept Chief Operating Officer(COO) of the nation’s third division football league, Olushola Ogunnowo.

“All is set for another epic six days of football display from the best and top teams from the 2021/22 season of the NLO.

“The idea behind the Championship Play-Off is simple, and that’s having the overall champion of the NLO season, despite the eight teams earning promotion to the Nigeria National League (NNL).

“Just as we have Rivers United as champions of the Nigeria Professional Football League(NPFL), the new NLO winner will emerge from the play-off.

“We are delighted that the Legacy Pitch, in the Sports City (Surulere) of Lagos is hosting the football fiesta.

“Fans in the cosmopolitan city will get to see the quality of our grassroots football that will be exhibited by the teams that emerged champions.

“Aside from fans catching a glimpse of our good football, they should also be top-notch officiating and quality organisation, which the NLO is known for.

“For followers of the NLO on social media, the play-off matches will be on live stream on the NLO TV App. The essence is for fans not to miss any action of the games but view them in their comfort zones and locations.”

With the eight teams beating the Sunday date for arrival in Lagos and knowing their groupings, the opening fixtures of the championship play-off, get underway from Monday with Group B matches.

Junior Danburam against Madiba FC at 10 am with the second game, Aspire FC and Police Barretta fixed for noon.

The Group B fixture will see Mailatarki Care FC tackle FC Ebedei at 2 pm while the last game for Matchday One between Smart City and Kun Khalifa FC is fixed for 4pm.

Secretariat of the nation’s third-tier domestic league announced via its media department that the Legacy Pitch, National Stadium in Surulere will host the six days.

Eight teams of Smart City FC (Lagos State), Madiba FC (Lagos State), FC Ebedei (Ogun State), Police Barretta FC, Kun Khalifa FC (Imo State), Aspire FC (Anambra State), Jnr Danburan (Katsina State) and Mailatarki Care FC of the Federal Capital Territory, will slug it out in the championship play-off to determine the overall winner for the NLO 2022 season.

The league body has also informed the team that it has made provision to accommodate a 25-man contingent, (made up of 20 players and five Officials) of each team.

The arrival date for all teams is fixed for Sunday, October 2nd while the kickoff date is 3rd October.

Opening fixtures of the championship play-off are Mailatarki Care FC versus FC Ebedei and Smart City versus Kun Khalifa FC billed for 2 and 4 pm respectively.

Meanwhile, the final is fixed for October 8th at the Legacy Pitch.

The parent body of All Nigerian Football Players Union, ANFPU has identified and recognized laudable efforts of two sports philanthropists, Honorable Khamisu Ahmed Mailantriki and Barrister Paul Edeh in youth empowerment and grassroot football development, onwardnews24.com can report.

The players’ union recognized the duo with a special awards of excellence to commend both Honorable Mailantriki and Barrister Odeh for their commitments and contributions to sports in the downtrodden.

At the award reception held in Abuja on Wednesday 31st of August, 2022, President of the Union, Abdul Sule described both men as very important individuals to football and humanity.

Sule noted that Hon. Mailantriki and Barrister Odeh who have also been appointed as Patrons of the Players’ Union at the reception are among few citizens that have shown love and care for youths both in cash and kind.

“Our award recipients are very important persons in our society. They are men who spend their hard earned resources to support the youths and they have been very successful.

“Take example of Mailantriki, he has been doing this for years, he has been spending his money on the youths for years making sure that the players welfare are taken care of, making football very much easier for them. If others are doing part of what he is doing, we will harness the great talents we have in abundance.

“Are when we talking about Barrister Paul Edeh. He has been fantastic. He is taking care of young girls who had no hope and now he has given them hope and future. He has done so much for those girls to make sure they become who they are supposed to be. The future is bright for them and their families are happy.

“We as a football players union are equally happy and that’s why we felt it right and worthy to honour these men as a source of encouragement.

“Today, some of them are playing in the national teams. He organises international games in the country for them, bring teams from other parts of the continent.

“When someone gets a pat on the back for doing something, it’s an encouragement to do more. They are doing all this without government assistance and yet they have continued to forge ahead. It’s not because they are very rich but because they have the interest of the youth at heart. It’s very amazing.”

Abdul Sule who is a retired Super Eagles player recommended that duo fors national and international recognition as their contributions to the development of grassroots football in the country cannot be overemphasized just as he assured them of the Players Union’s supports in all their programs.

Honorable Khamisu Mailantriki is the financier of Mailtantarki FC who recently won both the Dana Cup in Denmark and Norway Invitational Youth Cup. He is also known for various kind of youth empowerment in Gombe State and FCT.

Barrister Paul Odeh has a keen interest in developing girl child and has been doing that through football. It was his love to give a life and figure for girls that made him established Naija Ratels and Honey Badgers Women’s Football Team. He has seen the team excelling well in Nigerian Women’s Football Leagues.
Barrister Odeh is also the BrainBehind a prestigious preseason tournament tagged Ratels Cup that has been helpful to prepare women’s teams in Nigeria for regular campaign.

Abdul Maiyadi and Miko Dalha’s strikes in each half ensured the only Nigerian club in the International Youth Championship Denmark qualified for the final fixture of the 2022 edition in the sports city of Hjørring.

The game proved to be harder for unbeaten Mailantarki Boys in the first quarter of the encounter as the game traffic moving from either side and of course Varbergs forward forced our goalie Edward Ameh for an early safe after diving to his right to push away the goal-bound effort.

In a swift response, the Amazon Kayakers from Nigeria embarked on an impressive attacking run masterminded by Ibrahim Sani Dembele to the part of Miko Dala who blasted an effort just for the goalie to make a brilliant safe but he can not stops Abdul Maiyadi’s curling effort few minutes later as he got beaten into his far post from the edge of the box to give Mailantarki boys the lead at the break.

Both teams resumed from the locker rooms with much vigor but our boys were much better as they took many shares of the possession courtesy of the 4-3-3 formation with Hamza Sani, Ibrahim Sani and Abdul Maiyadi in the middle of the park.

The club president Honourable Khamisu Mailantarki who is with the team at the tournament was highly impressed with the masterclass performance of his boys for being unbeaten coupled with the record-breaking 39 goals so far ahead of the final game tomorrow against Vidar FK of Norway.

“I thank Almighty Allah for the huge success we achieved so far, we still need to take this display to the final and we are very much confident we will bring the trophy to Nigeria”.

The final fixture will take place tomorrow (Saturday 30th July l, 2022) by 2:15 pm (1:15 pm Nigerian time) at the main Nord Energy Arena Stadium in Hjørring, Denmark, and it’s going to be streamed live via a dedicated DanaCup22 channel.