The 2014 Nigeria Professional Football League season has come to a close with Enyimba crowned the champion for the record 7th time. A lot was seen in the just concluded season, reasonable increase number of away win, fair officiating, fabulous goals, somewhat peaceful spectators, broken records and a lot of wonderful display. Going by what was seen this season in the NPFL, you tend to discover the league has everything it takes to become a world class if the right things are put in place. Having been a keen follower of the NPFL for some period of time and someone who is seriously interested in the growth of Nigerian football, I‘ve sat down closely to look inward into the league and some developed ones around the world for comparison and at the end, I‘ve brought out a “childish” master plan or should I call it a blueprint of how the NPFL can be transformed into a world class league within the shortest possible time. This article will be in editions, parts, episodes or chapters whichever way you wish to take it, please bear with me. Let me also use this medium to congratulate league champion Enyimba, league cup winner Akwa United and the LMC for successful completion of the just concluded NPFL season. I also congratulate the new sport minister, Solomon Dalung for his appointment and I wish him best of luck in running the ministry.


Before I commence, let me briefly take you into the history of the league. The Nigerian football league was founded in 1972, 12 years after Nigeria gained independence from Britain, though the nation had been involved in football right before independence. Political instability and civil war were major factors the country don’t have a soccer league before 1972. The league started with 6 teams which include Mighty Jets of Jos, Rangers International of Enugu, Western Nigeria Development Company, Ibadan (now Shooting Stars S.C), Spartans of Owerri (now Heartland F.C) and Vipers of Benin (now Bendel Insurance F.C). It was rechristened “professional league” in 1990 with the goal to modernize and develop the game in the country and to make clubs self-sufficient. A decree at the time stipulate clubs should be run as a limited liability companies and governed by constituted board of directors, cultivate youth teams and own it own stadium within 5 years of registration. In order to assist club achieve this stated goals, all 56 professional clubs at the time were given 5 years tax moratorium on all income ranging from 1990 to 1995. This was aimed to aid them achieved those goals in the time interval given to them and to develop the league into a world class.


Browsing through the stated decree above, you and I tend to discover the league body present at the time was more than ready to build a professional and world class league. Today, 25 years after, we can all see the deplorable state of our league, no Nigerian club has a stadium of it own, privately owned club hardly exist in the league. The league has been faced with a lot crisis such as improper management, bad officiating, crowd trouble, even match fixing scandal after the 1990 innovation failed. The failure of clubs to meet the stipulated goals can also be blamed on political instability during the period, June 12 crisis precisely. Political instability can be said to be the major cause of the stunted growth in Nigerian football in the 90s. The league is manage today by the League Management Company (LMC), which came on board in 2012 due to the failure of the Nigerian Football League (NFL), the body managing the league before then. The LMC also has came up with a lot of innovative plan to build the league from the scrap, the body has introduced new innovations like the Wonder Goal Award, bonuses for away win, bonus for fans attendance and a lot of constructive plan for the league. The LMC have also secured a $34 million Television right deal with Super Sport and Title sponsorship with telecommunication giant, Glo. We must confess the LMC is working!


Though, the performance of the LMC has been fabulous and incredible, the development of the league under their watch seems quite slow, and going on this pace, it will take over a decade or two to build a good and sustainable soccer league which we are the rest of Africa can be proud of. A league that will be characterized with proper management, world class facilities, stable calendar, peaceful and passionate fans, adequate organisation, financial buoyancy and best quality soccer stars around the world. A league we can proudly call the best in Africa and on of the best in the world and no single individual on earth will doubt. A league the rest of Africa and the world would term “the African league”. Indeed, we can have one in our great nation. We are the giant of Africa and the nation with the largest economy on the continent, but, ladies and gentlemen, we all have a role to play, a major one indeed. Good People, Great Nation.


Today, the English Premier League is regarded by absolute majority of football fans around the world as the best league in the world due to it financial buoyancy and competitiveness, it is the most watched and most followed football league all over the world with broadcast in 212 countries to 643 million homes and a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people, more than half of the population of the earth. The average stadium occupancy is 92% with an average attendance of 35,363, the second highest in any professional football league in the world behind the German Bundesliga. The Premier League is currently sponsored by Barclay bank in a deal worth £40 million a year and thus officially known as the Barclay Premier League. Sky sports and BT sports are the league TV partner with deals worth billions of pound yearly for both domestic and international right. The league gains billions of pounds annually on both local and international Television broadcast due to worldwide interest of football fans in the league. The premier league has also attracted a lot of foreign talents in Europe and around the world and it is the only soccer league today that has a team that has fielded starting line-up without a citizen of the country involve and a team that fielded 11 players of different nationalities in it starting line-up. All these achieve achievement didn’t came to be in a twinkle of an eye, it went through rigorous process with great commitment and belief. Do you know that the English football was once in shamble?


Despite significant success in European football during the 1970s and early 1980s, the late ‘80s marked a low point in English football. Their were a lot of crumbling stadia, poor facilities, hooliganism, and the worst, English clubs were banned from European competition for 5 years following the Heysel stadium disaster in 1985. The English football league was well behind the Italian Serie A and the Spanish La Liga in almost everything ranging from attendance, revenues, etc. Several top English player move abroad to find greener pasture, a rare case nowadays. It only took the English FA and the government of United Kingdom to put their heads together and find a solution to the challenges. A report on safety standard known as Taylor report which proposed expensive upgrades of stadiums, making them all-seater was published in January 1990. The British government led by “iron lady”, Margaret Thatcher issued a grant worth over £200 million for stadium renovation and upgrades. A new league was established which commenced in 1992 after several agreements was reached by clubs and the FA which was rechristened “Premier League”. Fans attendance started growing, broadcast and sponsorship revenue rose till it became what we have today as the best and most financially buoyant soccer league on earth.

In building a world class league in Nigeria, we have to follow the same trend in a different dimension. The first step needed to be taken is to order State government to relinquish powers of operating football clubs. This looks quite easy but seems to be one of the hardest steps we have to take. To make State government relinquish power is quite difficult, did you as why? Operating a football club is by far the easiest and most unquestionable way of embezzling funds by state government officials. Do you know that all NPFL clubs are operated with the least of 500 million naira per annum? Are you surprised? You wonder why players are owed wages and not even paid high wages. Government relinquishing powers to operate clubs will create avenue for private hands to come in and invest bountifully into the league. The question is how do we generate the interest of the private sector to invest in into the league? How do we make them feel investing in the league has more benefit than elsewhere. There is only one way in generating interest of private individuals to invest the football league; putting the right and necessary facilities in place. The aim of all private investors is to make reasonable amount profit or fulfilment of his interest. The LMC under capable hands needs to create enabling environment for private investors, both local and foreign, for them to invest in the league and achieve their interest. Creating a cordial relationship with them and aiding them in achieving their interest is vital for the growth and development of the league. As we move further, we will explain more on how to create influx of local and foreign investors.



To build a world class league in Nigeria, we have to follow the steps taking by the British Government in the early 90s, the League Management Company and the Nigerian Football Federation in collaboration with the National Sport Commission and the new sport minister should request for a grant worth at least $500 million from the federal government for stadia upgrades across the 36 states and the federal capital territory. The sum sounds amazingly crazy and incredibly outrageous, oh yes! I agree with you no one in government would be ready to offer such sum and see it perish mysteriously, not even at this time the country is encountering economic crisis. Did I mention earlier that today the British government generates over £3 billion pounds a year on taxes, football tourism, etc? They only invested £200 million pound 24 years ago and today it earns them huge revenue, good global picture and respect amidst nations. Do you know the Nigerian government can generate back this huge fund back in 10 years or less through taxes generated from clubs only, not considering the later increase in revenue? The mathematical and statistical analysis will be done as we progress, the societal benefit and communal gains will also be given a look. As I‘ve said earlier, this article will be in edition, parts or episode, just stay calm and wait for the next edition of this article. To my humble reader, thanks a lot.

cc; Taiocol, groundnutoil, krasid, uduokirika1, honeric, evestar200



lalasticlala.... front page

Nice
Exactly
My prayers someday...



Nice write OP wish the right eyes would see this master piece write up

FP material *No End Time*

FP material *No End Time*

FP material *No End Time*

fiftynaira:
Nice
Exactly
My prayers someday...



Nice write OP wish the right eyes would see this master piece write up

thanks...... it a great pain to see our league ranked behind Scandinavian nation's league, Maghreb nation's league and south african league. Nigeria has more talent and human resources than all those countries our players run to.

Bros tweet dis link of d article to nff and lmc also nigeria sport commision

groundnutoil:
Bros tweet dis link of d article to nff and lmc also nigeria sport commision

I will bro........


I wonder why this is not on FP yet. It needs to get there so that the second edition will be posted tomorrow

Seun no like sport

crownprince102:

I will bro........


I wonder why this is not on FP yet. It needs to get there so that the second edition will be posted tomorrow

groundnutoil:
Seun no like sport

If it doesn't hit front page soon, I won't post the second edition here. I 'm gonna find a better place where it will circulate to sport fan across the country. This is quite unfair and disrespectful, only because it's not european league

No mind dm see beautiful work wey persin d bring out time do but if na arsenal bunley mukina2 go bring am fp. Later dm go say dm wan make 9ja develop but dm no wan help

crownprince102:

If it doesn't hit front page soon, I won't post the second edition here. I 'm gonna find a better place where it will circulate to sport fan across the country. This is quite unfair and disrespectful, only because it's not european league

groundnutoil:
No mind dm see beautiful work wey persin d bring out time do but if na arsenal bunley mukina2 go bring am fp. Later dm go say dm wan make 9ja develop but dm no wan help

The worst was that i mailed the mods to notify them few days before.

The Government should not Hand over fully to private investors. Give out 50% of the clubs share to the community.





LMC once proposed community ownership of clubs but are not serious about it. No campaign. Nothing at all

Mukina2, Seun, Mynd44 oya Fp

Bros just continue we go follow help push caract 4 dis post to enter fp

crownprince102:

The worst was that i mailed the mods to notify them few days before.

taiocol:
The Government should not Hand over fully to private investors. Give out 50% of the clubs share to the community.





LMC once proposed community ownership of clubs but are not serious about it. No campaign. Nothing at all

nope they should totally handover to private investors.football is no more just fun its now a business.l ready d other dat a wolve keeper coundnt pay his wife ceaserean operation i wept dat day.chai we gat long way to go

groundnutoil:
nope they should totally handover to private investors.football is no more just fun its now a business.l ready d other dat a wolve keeper coundnt pay his wife ceaserean operation i wept dat day.chai we gat long way to go

Expect for states with more than 1 teams should hand over fully to the private sector

groundnutoil:
nope they should totally handover to private investors.football is no more just fun its now a business.l ready d other dat a wolve keeper coundnt pay his wife ceaserean operation i wept dat day.chai we gat long way to go

Post the link

taiocol:
The Government should not Hand over fully to private investors. Give out 50% of the clubs share to the community.





LMC once proposed community ownership of clubs but are not serious about it. No campaign. Nothing at all

100% private ownership with strict financial guidelines to avoid bankrupt. No private will be ready to share ownership with the state government.

This rubbish is too long

Ok
What happened to summary

Click like if u read evritin , click share if u didnt

Good job Mate...

Summary abeg,u no expect make I sitsown dey read dat long tin abt NPFL nao .

football

ihatebuhari:
This rubbish is too long

Rubbish?? And must you comment? Sometimes keep quiet against all odds and people will assume you're wise.

Ok.

I HOPE IT WILL WORK

w

I just hope the right people see this.