Abuja –  The 2012 Nationwide League, formerly the National Amateur League, will now commence early in March, the competition’s Secretary, Emmanuel Adesanya, has said.

Adesanya  on Wednesday in Abuja said that the postponement was due to the late closure of the 2011 football year and the recent nationwide strike.

The  league’s secretariat had earlier fixed Feb. 18 for the beginning of the competition, which is in three divisions.

“The problem arose because the 2011 football year ended late and the recent nationwide strike also made us to lose about a week of preparations,’’ he said.

According to him, the league secretariat will now have to start from where it left off before the nationwide strike which lasted between Jan. 9 and Jan. 16.

The secretariat had on Dec. 21, 2011 forwarded registration forms to all the clubs participating in its competitions, through the state Football Associations (FAs).

The secretariat had also distributed players’ licences to the clubs between Dec. 16 and Dec. 26, 2011.

“We did start our preparations for the new season earlier on in December 2011 and we had been confident of doing all that was necessary for us to start the new season on Feb. 18.

“But the nationwide strike brought a halt to our activities as most of our affiliates, such as the FAs and the clubs, were grounded, and there was nothing we could do other than to stay action,’’ Adesanya said.

He, however, lamented that activities regarding registration were still not as expected, thus further stalling moves toward an early and scheduled kick-off of the league.

The secretary said that efforts at changing the competition’s name in December had also slowed down activities in the league’s secretariat.

The Nigeria Football Association (NFA) Annual General Assembly in Kaduna on Dec. 29 approved the change of competition’s name to Nationwide League.

“The clubs were to return the filled registration forms and other documents between Jan. 2 and Jan. 12, and return the licences for stamping and endorsement between Jan. 27 and Jan. 31, but things have now changed.

“The NFA endorsed our proposal to change the league’s name from National Amateur League (NAL) to Nationwide League (NL) and we now need to complete the registration of the name.

“This registration process has to take some time, and that means all documents, including registration materials, have to change so as to bear the new name. This means we have to endure some waiting now,’’ he said.

The NFA official, however, said the league secretariat would work to ensure that the competition commenced early in March.

“We are doing our best to ensure we do all we need to do. Initially, the draw for the Division One was to be on Feb. 1.

“But if all things go well as we envisage now, we will hold the draws in the third or fourth week of February so that we can get the competition under way by the first week of March,’’ he said. (NAN)