The host side Rivers Angels exited the NWFL Premiership Super Six on Sunday, June 14, 2026, with a Fair Play trophy and a shared Golden Boot, while the overseeing head of the Rivers State Sports Ministry, Chris Green, faced immediate media heat for claiming a spiritual entity cost the male team their league title.
The elite women’s playoff concluded at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium with Edo Queens lifting the league crown, leaving the Port Harcourt hosts stranded in fourth place on the final tournament standings.
Rivers Angels ended a tough campaign with four points after playing out a flat, scoreless draw against Nasarawa Amazons on the final day. While the low placement fell short of local expectations, the squad salvaged institutional pride by picking up the tournament’s Fair Play Award for overall team discipline, while star forward Abasiofon Uwah secured a share of the league’s Golden Boot, matching Edo Queens’ Atume Doosuur with 13 goals over the course of the season.
However, the real friction within the state’s sports hierarchy boiled over during the post-tournament interactions. Pressed on why the state’s heavily subsidized male club, Rivers United, collapsed on the final stretch of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) season to finish second behind Rangers International by a single point, Barrister Chris Green dismissed technical critiques. Green, the State Attorney-General who still holds full administrative oversight of the Sports Ministry, told reporters that the team fell short simply because the “God of football” did not decree a Port Harcourt victory this year.
The comment has drawn sharp reactions from local football stakeholders, who view Green’s fatalism as an amateur defense mechanism against obvious administrative mismanagement. Analysts are quick to point out that divine intervention had nothing to do with Rivers United’s terrible away form, dropped points against lower-tier sides facing relegation, or the late-season tactical rigidity that ultimately cost them the trophy on the final matchday.
By shifting the blame to spiritual forces, the sports ministry leadership is actively avoiding the internal reviews needed to fix the structural issues draining the state’s sports budget. While the women’s team showed on-field discipline and clinical individual form through Uwah, Port Harcourt’s football community is demanding real, data-driven accountability from Green’s desk before the next pre-season camp begins, rather than religious explanations for clear managerial errors.
