THE Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) has tentatively fixed the weekend of August 27 to 29 for the kickoff of the 2026/27 season following a joint stakeholders’ meeting involving the National Sports Commission (NSC), the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), the NPFL and club owners in Abuja.
News Point Nigeria Sport reports that the approved football calendar schedules the new season to run until May 28, 2027, with the timeline also incorporating fixtures for the President Federation Cup as organisers seek to maintain a more structured domestic football calendar.
The 2026/27 campaign will also usher in a new financial era after the Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Shehu Dikko, announced that the league champions will receive N1 billion in prize money—the biggest winner’s purse in the history of Nigerian club football.
The enhanced prize money forms part of broader reforms aimed at improving the commercial value and competitiveness of the NPFL while attracting greater investment into Nigeria’s domestic football league.
The new season will feature four promoted clubs from the Nigeria National League (NNL) following the conclusion of the 2025/26 second-tier campaign.
Sporting Lagos, Inter Lagos, Ranchers Bees and Doma United secured promotion to the top flight, replacing the four clubs relegated from the just-concluded NPFL season.
The newly promoted sides will join defending champions Enugu Rangers, who claimed their ninth league title after finishing top of the table at the end of the 2025/26 campaign.
