Emma Njoku
Players in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) and other domestic leagues must undergo mandatory pre-competition medical assessment (PCMA) in line with CAF and FIFA standards to ascertain their fitness before the commencement of the season, henceforth.
This was part of the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee on Safety and Security set up by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to unravel the circumstances surrounding the death of Nasarawa United player, Chineme Martins, during an NPFL game in Lafia on March 8, 2020.
The committee, which submitted their report to the NFF, yesterday, also recommended that all clubs should have a minimum of one qualified medical officer and a physiotherapist.
President of the NFF, Mr. Amaju Pinnick, while receiving the report yesterday, praised the efforts of the committee.
At the virtual presentation yesterday, Chairman of the committee, Dr. Peter Singabele (a former member of the NFF Executive Committee and presently Member of the CAF Committee on Sports Medicine), enunciated the committee’s key findings, submissions and recommendations at both the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City, and the Lafia City Stadium, where it visited, as well as short-term, medium-term and long-term recommendations to forestall such heartbreaking incidents in the future.
In his response, Pinnick said: “I want to give kudos to the chairman and members of this committee for the thorough job they have done.
“Your job was made more arduous given that it was at a time of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, and at a time, it was only your committee that was doing any work in football. Yet, you never wavered in painstakingly attending to every detail of the assignment.”