Rivers United would be completing their backlog of fixtures on May 18 before the resumption of the league from a temporary break meant to allow the Port Harcourt club catch up with the rest.
Announcing this in a memo to Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) clubs, Davidson Owumi, the Chief Operating Officer, explained that, “this has been done to provide level playing platform for all teams going into the last six fixtures of the season”.
Writing to the clubs, Owumi stated that “after further deliberations and consistent with our principle of sporting fairness, I am pleased to share with you a more accommodating fixture arrangement to ensure that the outstanding games of Rivers United are completed”.
He further notified the clubs that while the league will be paused after the fixtures of MatchDay 32, it would resume on the weekend of May 25-26 with Matchday 33 games.
The rearranged fixtures involving Rivers United has been made to ease the logistics of travels as game dates have been fixed based on regional proximity of venues.
Thus, Rivers United away fixtures of Matchday 21, 23 and 27 against Remo Stars, Kwara United and Sunshine Stars respectively will be played on May 5, May 8 and May 11. Rivers United would then proceed to Umuahia for their Matchday 29 game with Abia Warriors and rounding off with a home fixture against Niger Tornadoes which is a Matchday 22 tie.
“We expect to have an uninterrupted sail for the remaining games of Matchday 33-38 after the run of clearing these backlogs”, Owumi told NPFL Media.