2015 Nigeria Professional Football League

The 2015 Nigeria Professional Football League (referred to as the Nigerian Glo premier league for sponsorship reasons) is the 44th season of the Nigeria Premier League, the top Nigerian professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1972, and the 25th since the rebranding of the league as the "Professional League".

Nigeria Premier League

Season	2015
Champions	Enyimba
Relegated	Bayelsa United Kwara United Sharks Taraba
Champions League	Enyimba Warri Wolves
Confederation Cup	Akwa United Nasarawa United
Matches played	380
Goals scored	816 (2.15 per match)
Top goalscorer	Gbolahan Salami[1] of Warri Wolves (17 goals)
Biggest home win	2 matches Warri Wolves 5-0 El-Kanemi Warriors (26 July 2015) Sunshine Stars 5-0 El-Kanemi Warriors (23 August 2015)
Biggest away win	2 matches Heartland 0-3 Sunshine Stars (3 May 2015) El-Kanemi Warriors 1-4 Gabros International (21 June 2015)
Highest scoring	Heartland 5-2 Nasarawa United (22 March 2015)
Longest winning run	Enugu Rangers Warri Wolves (4)
Longest unbeaten run	Enyimba (10)
Longest winless run	Taraba (17)
Longest losing run	Sunshine Stars Taraba (4)
← 2014 2016 → All statistics correct as of 16 November 2015.

Enyimba won their seventh league title and first since the 2009–10 season. They clinched with a week to go in the season with a scoreless draw with Warri Wolves, who were six points behind. Warri Wolves finished in second place, four points behind Enyimba, and both will represent Nigeria in the 2016 CAF Champions League. Nasarawa United placed third and qualified for the 2016 CAF Confederation Cup.

Bayelsa United, Kwara United, Sharks and Taraba each finished in the bottom four and will be relegated to the Nigeria National League for 2016. Akwa United escaped relegation, pulling out of the bottom four with a 1-0 win over Lobi Stars in their final match of the season.

Clubs

A total of 20 teams will contest the league including 16 teams from the previous season and four teams promoted from the Nigeria National League. The four promoted teams replace Gombe United, Crown, Kaduna United and Nembe City who were all relegated to the National League at the end of the previous season

Kano Pillars

Dolphins

Sunshine Stars

W.Wolves

Enugu Rangers

Enyimba

Heartland

Sharks

3SC

Akwa United

W. Tourists

Kwara United

Lobi Stars

Bayelsa United

Nasarawa United

El-Kanemi Warriors

Gabros

Giwa FC

Abia Warriors

Taraba F.C.

Locations of the Nigeria Premier League 2015 teams

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Main article: Football venues in Nigeria

Akwa United	Bayelsa United F.C.	Dolphin F.C.	Wikki Tourists	Heartland	Gabros
Akwa Ibom Stadium	Oghara Township Stadium	Liberation Stadium	Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium	Dan Anyiam Stadium	Gabros Stadium
Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 5,000	Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 15,000	Capacity: 10,000	Capacity: 3,000
Lobi Stars	Nasarawa United	Kwara United F.C.	Sunshine Stars F.C.
Aper Aku Stadium	Lafia Township Stadium	Kwara Stadium	Akure Township Stadium
Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 5,000	Capacity: 18,000	Capacity: 10,000
El-Kanemi Warriors	Enugu Rangers	Enyimba	Kano Pillars
Karkanda Stadium	Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium	Enyimba International Stadium	Sani Abacha Stadium
Capacity: 35,000	Capacity: 22,000	Capacity: 25,500	Capacity: 25,000
Sharks	Warri Wolves	Abia Warriors F.C.	Giwa FC	Shooting Stars F.C.	Taraba F.C.
Sharks Stadium	Warri Township Stadium	Umuahia Township Stadium	Rwang Pam Stadium	Lekan Salami Stadium	Jalingo City Stadium
Capacity: 10,000	Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 5,000	Capacity: 15,000	Capacity: 18,000	Capacity: 30,000

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Enyimba (C, Q)	38	19	13	6	48	27	+21	70	Qualification for 2016 CAF Champions League
2	Warri Wolves (Q)	38	19	9	10	62	29	+33	66
3	Nasarawa United (Q)	38	18	9	11	46	35	+11	63	Qualification for 2016 CAF Confederation Cup
4	Wikki Tourists	38	18	9	11	45	36	+9	63
5	Giwa	38	17	12	9	44	41	+3	63
6	Sunshine Stars	38	18	7	13	58	38	+20	61
7	Heartland	38	17	5	16	46	40	+6	56
8	Kano Pillars	38	16	7	15	45	39	+6	55
9	Shooting Stars	38	15	8	15	39	39	0	53
10	Abia Warriors	38	16	5	17	39	43	−4	53
11	Gabros International	38	14	8	16	37	40	−3	50
12	Enugu Rangers	38	13	10	15	46	51	−5	49
13	El-Kanemi Warriors	38	14	7	17	38	56	−18	49
14	Lobi Stars	38	11	14	13	34	39	−5	47
15	Akwa United (Q)	38	13	8	17	33	43	−10	47	Qualification for 2016 CAF Confederation Cup
16	Dolphins	38	11	12	15	38	40	−2	45
17	Sharks (R)	38	11	12	15	28	39	−11	45	Relegation to Nigeria National League
18	Kwara United (R)	38	12	6	20	32	46	−14	42
19	Taraba (R)	38	9	10	19	30	47	−17	37
20	Bayelsa United (R)	38	7	13	18	28	48	−20	34

Updated to match(es) played on 16 November 2015. Source: Nigeria Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated; (R) Relegated

News

Five Kano Pillars players were injured during an armed robbery as the club was heading south for their opener against Heartland FC.^[2] Their opening game was postponed indefinitely.

In June, the league forced several clubs to find new venues for Matchdays 12 and 13 while they make mandatory upgrades to their home grounds.^[3]

In August, Kano Pillars' 12-year undefeated streak at home came to an end in a 2-1 loss to Nasarawa United.^[4]

References

1. "Welcome to ABZ (Arthur Bueze's) SportsBlog: Gbolahan Salami wins first edition of Rashidi Yekini's NPFL Golden Boot Award, see other list of winners". Archived from the original on 2016-12-23. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
2. "Gunmen wound Kano Pillars players". BBC Sport.
3. "Seven clubs settle for new homes, LMC awaits Giwa, Nasarawa". www.npfl.ng. Archived from the original on 21 June 2015. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
4. Premier League side's unbeaten record ends^{[permanent dead link]}

• http://npfl.ng/ Archived 2015-10-25 at the Wayback Machine