The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has confirmed April 30 as take off date for the DStv Premier League.

NBBF President Mr. Tijjani Umar announced at the weekend in Lagos after a tour of facilities and meetings with the Lagos-based teams and sponsors of the league, Multi-choice Nigeria.

The announcement came as relief for the teams in the league who had trained since the start of the year with the initial date fixed for the first week of March.

The teams in Lagos unanimously agreed to continue to use the Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Lagos as their home venue for the for the 2009/2010 season.

The facility tour covered both the Rowe Park and University of Lagos Sports Complex.

The teams in Lagos, however, picked holes in the fixtures for the season as they said the arrangement where they have to travel to Asaba and return to Lagos instead of going straight to Port Harcourt was not cost effective.

Umar promised to take a second look at the complaint raised by the teams.

"The reason for this consultation is to enable us take in opinions and work on them. And so no matter what has been said on this matter and how the fixtures have been drawn, we'll still take a second look at them," Umar said.

Chairman of the Federation Technical Committee Mukhtar Malone Khaleh said at the same forum at the Lagos National Stadium that the fixtures will be released across the country this week.

The NBBF President also made public the DStv League Board that will help the Federation run the country's flagship competition.

The board has the Federation's Vice-President Mukhtar Khaleh as Chairman.

It also has a representative of the sponsors; Col. Sam Ahmedu of the Dodan Warriors will represent teams in the Atlantic Conference while Hon. Tanko Dutse of Yelwa Hawks is representing teams of the Savannah Conference.

The other members include the president of the Referees Council, the president of the Coaches Association; Brig. Saleh Bala, Deji Jaiyeola, Agboola Pinheiro, Datti Aminu. NBBF Secretary General Mr. Francis Gbiri will serve as the Secretary.The league board is the first the Federation will be having in place since the Premier League began in 1995.

THISDAYONLINE "20 april