Major Overhaul: NNL Ends Playoffs Ahead Of 2025/26 Season

According to Ireporter Online, the Nigeria National League (NNL) has introduced sweeping reforms to its competition format by abolishing the playoff system as the route to the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL).

Beginning with the 2025/2026 season, only the winners of the four conference groups will secure automatic promotion to the NPFL. The decision was ratified at the NNL Annual General Assembly held on Tuesday and confirmed in an official statement on Wednesday by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

The new campaign is scheduled to kick off on Saturday, November 8, 2025, with a ceremonial star match, while the rest of the opening fixtures will take place between November 14 and 16 across various venues nationwide.

Under the revised structure, the league will operate in an abridged format with four conferences—A, B, C, and D. This change effectively eliminates the traditional Super 8 tournament, which had previously determined promotion. From now on, only the top clubs from each group will advance to the NPFL.

To determine an overall league champion, the four promoted teams will compete in a compulsory Super Four tournament. The NFF made it clear that participation in this playoff is mandatory, stressing that any club that fails to feature will automatically forfeit its promotion slot to the second-placed team in its group.

The football body described the move as a necessary step to strengthen transparency, reward consistency, and raise the level of competition within Nigerian football.