B'BALL: CHARIOTS, IMMIGRATIONS GAIN PROMOTION

Newly promoted National Division One sides Chariots and Nigeria Immigrations will only be able to play in next season's DStv league Atlantic and Savannah conferences respectively.

The President of the Nigerian Basketball Federation Tijani Umar said this during the 2009/10 league opener between Union Bank and Dodan Warriors at the indoor sports hall of the National Stadium, Lagos.

Umar added that road trips have been cancelled this season, saying that was the only way clubs playing in the continent will have adequate time to prepare for their matches.

'In order to give the teams sufficient time for continental championships, the league management board decided to drop the road trips. We are getting better organised and with DStv, the league will be the best on the continent,' Umar said.

He finally doused tension among club owners over the sharing formula of the N46m sponsorship money of the league. The mode of sharing had generated a lot of controversy before Umar's pronouncement.

He said, 'From the N46m, clubs will get 40 per cent while officials will receive 30 per cent of the money. The prize money is 10 per cent while the remaining 20 pr cent will be used by the NBBF to develop facilities across all the venues.'