It's often said that winning away from home in the South American World Cup qualifying group is a tough task.
But the Nigerian league takes that up a notch. It is almost impossible to win away from one's homeground in the West African country's top flight.
Indeed 10 of the 20 teams in the Nigerian Super League went unbeaten at home in the season just gone.
Champions Kano Pillars lost 15 of their 19 away games, while runners up Enyimba did not even concede a goal at home. Overall, out of the 380 matches played last season, only 18 resulted in a win for the away side.
It is a startling statistic. But why is it so tough for visiting teams?
Off The Ball asked The Guardian's Paul Doyle, who has looked into the issue.
"It's a curious looking league table. No team including the champions won more than three away from home. You have teams like Gumbe United who won all their home matches but lost their away matches. At first glance it's amusing but when you delve into it a little deeper, it's tragic really."
There are three main reasons for the discrepancy in results according to Doyle:
"Travel can be very difficult. These are not wealthy teams so they don't fly to matches. The whole team will pile onto a bus and travel across very rough roads and in regions where there is civil strife, you can be robbed as two teams were.
"Then at the grounds there are fans and referees that you have to deal with. Referees are subject to extreme pressure sometimes from intense groups of fans. Certain clubs have sections of ultras where they can intimidate the ref. That can go as far as to attack him. There have been numerous cases of referees being attacked this season by pitch invaders. In one game - live on TV - one guy ran onto the pitch and karate kicked a ref. Others were roughed up after games. Some referees even threatened to boycott games if they did not have bodyguards before and after.
"The home teams also pay the referees' expenses so giving decisions against the home team can be difficult. Sometimes the away side will try to balance that out by offering to pay the referee's expenses as well."
