The Chairman of Gombe State Football Association (FA) and a member of the board of the Nigeria National League (NNL), Yakubu Sarma has denied knowledge of the news being circulated on some online platforms that the NNL has confirmed the relegation of 12 clubs from the four groups that played in last season’s league to the third tier National League One (NLO).
The news also purported that the NNL had sent a letter to the NFF confirming the relegation of the 12 clubs and that the letter was dated July 13, 2024.
However, in his reaction on Wednesday to clarify issues raised, Sarma said “I can categorically tell you without fear or any contradiction that as a member of the NNL Board, that the board has not met to the best of my knowledge.
“I have not endorsed or confirmed the relegation of 12 teams from the four conferences and I have not also confirmed and endorsed the receipt of teams promoted from NNO,” he said.
The NNL board member said the reports that the NNL Board has approved and had written the NNF confirming the relegation, was not true, “to the best of my knowledge I am not aware that as a board we have agreed on that and have mandated anybody from the secretariat to write NFF.
“Secondly, I have not been briefed that we have received teams that have been promoted from the NNL as such any news in that regard is a figment of the imagination of the person that wrote the report,” Sama said.
According to him, the board is yet to issue any statement concerning the purported relegation being peddled on the online media.
On the Annual General Meeting (AGM), Sarma said the board was working hard to hold the AGM to determine when the league would start and so all the issues being carried in the media are pending when the board would meet and then decide on the issues.
He said information regarding how the AGM would be held would be determined when next the board meets “most likely next week.”
