NPFL Friday night football will start on 16 October, when Shooting Stars host Ranchers Bees at the Lekan Salami Stadium, Adamasingba, Ibadan, with kick-off at 6pm. The Nigeria Premier Football League announced on Sunday that the Matchday 9 fixture will open a new scheduling format that also brings early Saturday and Sunday kick-offs into the 2026/27 season.
NPFL · Matchday 9
Friday night kick-off
Lekan Salami Stadium, Adamasingba, Ibadan · Friday 16 October 2026, 6:00pm
Why the NPFL is moving games away from 4pm
Most NPFL games this season have kicked off at 4pm on a Saturday or Sunday, as the slate in our Matchday 7 preview showed. The league said the change is meant to give supporters, broadcasters and commercial partners more variety and flexibility, and to bring the domestic calendar closer to how major leagues around the world spread their fixtures across a weekend.
The early weekend kick-offs will be introduced gradually as the season goes on rather than all at once, and the league has not yet named which fixtures will move into those slots. That leaves the Ibadan game as the only confirmed evening fixture for now, so supporters who work on weekdays will be watching closely to see how quickly more Friday games follow.
Shooting Stars have done Friday nights before this season
The Oluyole Warriors are no strangers to the slot. Shooting Stars hosted Inter Lagos on a Friday on the opening matchday and won 2-1, so the 16 October game will be their second evening home fixture of the campaign. They come into it 17th on seven points from six matches after Sunday’s goalless draw with Nasarawa United, and they also have a trip to face Kun Khalifat at the Enyimba Stadium on Matchday 8.
Ranchers Bees sit one place above them on the same points after losing 2-1 at Kwara United on Sunday. The Kaduna club have also had a difficult week off the pitch, after the league fined them ₦5 million for security and conduct breaches during their Matchday 6 home game against Rivers United, when match officials were threatened and supporters tried to attack them.
What the switch could mean for crowds in Ibadan
An evening kick-off gives fans who spend Saturday and Sunday afternoons at work, church or family events a chance to get to the stadium, and it also takes the game out of the hottest part of the day. Whether the idea spreads will depend on how well the first fixture is attended and on which grounds can host evening matches safely, since the league is starting with a single game rather than a full Friday programme. With both clubs on seven points and hovering just above or inside the relegation places in a tight NPFL season, the points will matter as much as the novelty.
