Nigeria suspends football league for four weeks

The Nigeria Football Federation(NFF) has suspended its football league for four weeks after the number of confirmed cases in the country increased from three to eight,

According to a statement by The NFF "the shutdown affects all on-field activities the various National Teams, the Nigeria Professional Football League, the other Leagues, youth football programmes and even street football."

The Nigeria Women's professional league, which was due to start on Wednesday 18 March, was postponed for administrative reasons - but has now been further held off by the new development.

This comes a day after the country called off its National Sports Festival scheduled for 22 March, a move that saw top athletes such as the Commonwealth women's 100m record holder Blessing Okagbare cancel last-minute trips to Nigeria to participate at the games.

Nigeria joins several other African countries such as Ghana, South Africa, Morocco and Senegal to have called off football activities and sports competitions in general due to the coronavirus pandemic.