{"id":164893,"date":"2025-05-30T00:00:48","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T23:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/npfl-akwa-united-coach-akpan-rues-teams-relegation"},"modified":"2025-05-30T01:12:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T00:12:01","slug":"npfl-akwa-united-coach-akpan-rues-teams-relegation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/npfl-akwa-united-coach-akpan-rues-teams-relegation","title":{"rendered":"NPFL: Akwa United coach Akpan rues team\u2019s relegation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Former Nigeria youth international goalkeeper Bassey Akpan said he is saddened by Akwa United\u2019s relegation from the Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL.<\/p>\n<p>Akpan currently works as a goalkeeper trainer with Akwa United.<\/p>\n<p>Akwa United were relegated to the Nigeria National League, NNL, after finishing in 18th position on the NPFL table.<\/p>\n<p>Bassey said that the Promise Keepers worked hard to avoid the drop, but their efforts weren\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like a bone stuck in the throat, difficult to take,\u201d Bassey told Complete Sports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is my second year in coaching, and I think seeing Akwa United relegated is the saddest moment in my entire career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to accept. I haven\u2019t slept in my house since then because sleep has eluded me. I\u2019m just returning home on Wednesday. It\u2019s painful. We gave it our best. But it wasn\u2019t to be. So painful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Former Nigeria youth international goalkeeper Bassey Akpan said he is saddened by Akwa United\u2019s relegation from the Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL. Akpan currently works as a goalkeeper trainer with Akwa United. Akwa United were relegated to the Nigeria National League, NNL, after finishing in 18th position on the NPFL table. Bassey [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":164892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[8037,4860,254,579],"class_list":["post-164893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-akpan","tag-akwa-united","tag-nigeria","tag-npfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NPFL: Akwa United coach Akpan rues team\u2019s relegation - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Nigeria youth international goalkeeper Bassey Akpan said he is saddened by Akwa United\u2019s relegation from the Nige ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/npfl-akwa-united-coach-akpan-rues-teams-relegation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NPFL: Akwa United coach Akpan rues team\u2019s relegation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Nigeria youth international goalkeeper Bassey Akpan said he is saddened by Akwa United\u2019s relegation from the Nige ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/npfl-akwa-united-coach-akpan-rues-teams-relegation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-29T23:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-30T00:12:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/sm_1748551374.775377.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/npfl-akwa-united-coach-akpan-rues-teams-relegation#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/npfl-akwa-united-coach-akpan-rues-teams-relegation\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"NPFL: Akwa United coach Akpan rues team\u2019s relegation\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-29T23:00:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-30T00:12:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/npfl-akwa-united-coach-akpan-rues-teams-relegation\"},\"wordCount\":171,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/npfl-akwa-united-coach-akpan-rues-teams-relegation#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/sm_1748551374.775377.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"akpan\",\"Akwa United\",\"Nigeria\",\"NPFL\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/npfl-akwa-united-coach-akpan-rues-teams-relegation#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/npfl-akwa-united-coach-akpan-rues-teams-relegation\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/npfl-akwa-united-coach-akpan-rues-teams-relegation\",\"name\":\"NPFL: Akwa United coach Akpan rues team\u2019s relegation - 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