Rivers United have been forecast to lift the 2026/27 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) trophy by an artificial intelligence supercomputer created by Made In Africa Sport (MIAS).
The Port Harcourt club tops the computer’s pre-season rankings as the new NPFL campaign began on Friday, August 28.
MIAS built the system to assess all 380 matches scheduled for the 2026/27 season and estimate how the competition could finish. It conducts 100,000 Monte Carlo simulations for each fixture, producing 38 million simulations over the full campaign, using a record of more than 8,000 NPFL games dating back to 2003.
Rivers United are established among the leading challengers after taking second place in the 2025/26 season. Finidi George’s team lost the championship to Rangers International by one point on the closing day, finishing with 67 points and securing a place in the CAF Champions League.
The club has kept most of its previous squad and strengthened it with a number of transfer-window arrivals. The new recruits include Chikamso Amaefula, James Ekebuike, Alex Oyowah, Ubong Williams, Imo Obot, Ekene Awazie, Blessed Iyamu, Clinton Andy and Shehu Abdulrasheed Dabai.
Finidi, in charge at Rivers United since July 2024, believes the refreshed group can turn last season’s narrow failure into a title success, with the new signings expected to make the team stronger.
MIAS does more than identify likely winners for individual games. Its calculations assign probabilities to every possible final-table position, covering the championship race, qualification for continental competitions and the danger of relegation.
Recent form carries significant weight in the assessment, especially results from a club’s five most recent matches. The system also considers head-to-head results, attacking output, defensive performance, recruitment and home advantage. MIAS records show that visiting teams have won just 601 of the 7,966 NPFL fixtures played since 2003, equivalent to a 7.5% success rate.
“The NPFL has a considerable history, yet we are still not making sufficient use of the information available to us,” said Enitan Obadina, MIAS executive director. He said the model offers probability estimates grounded in the evidence, creating a more reliable starting point than choosing a winner solely because one team appears stronger on paper.
Obadina added that the computer’s forecasts are intended to establish a statistical reference point for debate about the league. They are not designed to displace human assessment or the expertise of football coaches and analysts.
Following each round of matches, the system will refresh its figures, club ratings and estimates of the teams’ chances of winning the title throughout the 38-match season.
