By Oluwashina Okeleji BBC Sport, Lagos

The NFA are involved in a row with Nigerian Football League

Five premier league clubs have been fined by the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) for failing to play their league games last weekend.

The five clubs were fined US$4,000 each after refusing to play their matches following a call to boycott league games from an association of club owners.

The NFA Disciplinary Committee ruled against Zamfara United, who were both fined and declared losers of their game for failing to honour their fixture in Makurdi against Lobi Stars.

The same sanctions were given to Jos University Teaching Hospital and Prime FC for missing their matches against Rangers International and Ocean Boys respectively.

Wikki Tourists and Nasarawa United were fined and will have to replay their match in Bauchi.

Under the NFA statutes the clubs could have been banned and automatically relegated.

"Article 12 of the rules and regulations of the league clearly states that should a club or clubs decide not to play a game, they will be banned for a year and automatically be relegated," a top Nigeria Football Association official said.

Club owners claiming to represent all 52 professional clubs in the country had called last week for clubs to stay away from the league until the face-off between the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) and the Nigeria Football League (NFL) is resolved.

However many games went ahead as planned over the weekend.

The NFA has insisted on appointing referees for league matches and generally have more say in the competition.