Heartland of Owerri and Abia Warriors of Umuahia have in separate letters to the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) nominated the Enyimba International Stadium as their alternate home ground for the rest of the 2023/24 season.
This is a sequel to the withdrawal of the provisional approval for their home grounds during the club licensing exercise at the start of the season.
The NPFL had in separate letters dated January 16, 2024, to the two clubs, conveyed its discomfort with the state of the playing pitches at the Dan Anyiam Stadium in Owerri for Heartland and the Umuahia Township Stadium for Abia Warriors.
“The decision is a result of the poor condition of the playing pitch at the Umuahia Township Stadium.
In light of this, we kindly request that Abia Warriors promptly identify and provide an alternate home ground for the remaining matches of the season”, read the letter to Abia Warriors and signed by Davidson Owumi, the Chief Operating Officer. A similar letter was also sent to Heartland.
The two clubs in separate replies have now elected to play at the neighbouring Enyimba International Stadium, home ground of Enyimba FC.
While their choices have been accepted by the NPFL, fixtures are to be rearranged to accommodate hosting of three league games at the Aba Stadium.
Owumi told NPFL Media that “we have a mechanism for continuous appraisal of Club Licensing requirements and at any point we find any club defaulting, appropriate remedial measures would be taken”.
Owumi added that a further inspection of the facilities would be carried out before the weekend to ascertain if there have been improvements from what they were at the time of last assessment.
The NPFL season went on mid-season recess after Matchday 19 on. January 20 and will resume on the weekend of February 3-4.