One of the top flight clubs, FC Taraba, have ran into a financial hitch and have been unable to pay their coaching and playing personnel since the start of the season. The Jalingo club have failed to pay their players' wages for 10 months and there are now fear that the NPFL bottom-placed team might fail to see out the current season.
The calendar of the NPFL is now looking threatened of being disrupted by the financial woes of FC Tarabawho who could be thrown out of the championship and have points removed from matches involving them.
There were telling signs of crisis in the club when they struggled to honour their match at Sunshine Stars which they lost 1-2.
FC Taraba travelled to Akure to face Sunshine Stars in their last game of the first round without the full complement of 18 players for that match. They made that trip with 15 players.
Luter Iyorhe, Abdulmalik Mohammed, Bobby Abel, Fidelis Saviour and Yau Hassan are among the departures at FC Taraba who are not ready to start the second round owing to exodus of their playing personnel.
General manager of the club, Tijani Babangida, it was learned, facilitated the departures of the quartet of Abdulmalik, Abel, Saviour and Hassan to Malta.
"Right now there is a problem in our camp and we don't have the financial power to honour our coming games and have asked for reprieve from the league body to give us time so that we can reach out to our financier, the Taraba State government," said a club official to supersport.com.
"Right now we have lost most of our players to rival clubs and a few of them have even travelled abroad. At the moment, we don't have a squad like we did in the first round and financially we can't even honour our home matches unless the government intervenes immediately. We need time to resolve this issue."
FC Taraba are already in breach of the NPFL rules for failing to pay their players "remuneration or entitlements for a period of more than 60 days."
The Jalingo club now face the punishment of having six points deducted from them. They could also be ducked further three points "for every further thirty days for which the remuneration or entitlement remains unpaid."
The troubled club could also be faced with a N10 million fine as well as footing the expenses of their opposing team and lose three points and three goals should they fail to honour their league game.
The official of the club, who spoke to supersport.com, is also worried that FC Taraba could be expelled from the NPFL if they "fail to honour two consecutive matches or three cumulative matches," according to the NPFL rule book.
FC Taraba are currently bottom of the NPFL with 13 points, 23 behind table-topping Sunshine Stars, who they play hosts to this Sunday. The club have also failed to win in their last 17 league matches.
The last time a club were thrown out of the Nigerian top flight was in 2012 when Ocean Boys were expelled from the league on September 9 of that year for failing to honour three successive matches.
The league calendar was disrupted with the deduction of points involving matches of Ocean Boys and that led to Kano Pillars being crowned champions when it was anticipated that the title race was heading for the wire.
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