Nigeria Professional Football League is ostensibly being jabbed out of its deathbed following the smooth running of the first half of the 2022-2023 season and much credit should be apportioned to the Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare, for dismantling the League Management Company and the ineptitude that characterized its operations and replacing it with the Interim Management Committee that has ushered in a new dawn.
The decision to replace the LMC with the IMC was met with little resistance but the majority of a small band of antagonists to the new order has now been won over by the professionalism, effectiveness and trust the Gbenga Elegbeleye-led committee has brought into the management of the league.
The departure from the old order has been spontaneous and effectively beneficial to the league. It is safe to conclude that stakeholders have not been this hopeful about the restoration of the lost glory of the Nigerian league.
Dare, with a vision that is lucid, fought against the principality that had been holding down the progress of the league for years. His courage and doggedness to confront the hawks that were feeding fat on the failure of the Nigerian league birthed the change and a new lease of life enjoyed by the premier division.
The Nigerian league has history of scandals and mismanagement that is symphonized by corruption, lack of sponsorship, absence of television coverage and accruing financial benefits, poor officiating, security concerns at match venues, indiscipline and selective adjudication and poor remuneration of referees among others.
There have been attempts in the past to stamp out these deficiencies from the Nigerian league but these efforts were not well encapsulated and pursued with vigour as much as we have seen in the one birthed by the vision of the current minister of sports.
He prepared the ground for the rebirth of the league with the conception and delivery of the 10-Year Football Master Plan that was endorsed and approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Master Plan, a well-researched document commissioned by Dare and put together by a group of highly experienced and knowledgeable football and sports people, robustly captured the changes needed to uplift the Nigeria Professional Football League and other domestic championships and competitions.
To show that the master plan would not be allowed to gather dust on the shelf in the ministry’s office, Dare hits the ground running with the implementation of the framework by kicking out the ineffective LMC with the IMC as its replacement.
He reechoed the vision he has for the league during the visit of the IMC to his office last December when he said, ”Our professional league, which used to be our pride in this country, is sick today and has become a caricature of its old self, which needs urgent attention.”
The message resonated very deeply with Elegbeleye and his friends in the IMC and they are carrying out the mandate with a sense of purpose.
The first assignment is to get the league aligned with the calendar of the Confederation of African Football to allow for the timely emergence of Nigeria’s representatives in continental club competitions which necessitated the decision to adopt the abridged version for the 20222/2023 season.
This decision was aimed at forestalling the embarrassing situation of not being able to produce representatives for CAF events when the situation arises as it happened in the case of the Federation Cup last year which ended abruptly in the last eight because of irregularities in the football calendar.
The decision on the abridged league was agreed on after the IMC had organised a highly successful pre-season tournament titled NPFL-Dozy Mmobuosi Super Cup with N100m prize money.
The IMC proved it was not business as usual when it ordered five clubs to play their home matches at different venues after the pitches they presented failed to meet the infrastructure requirements standard.
The affected clubs include seven-time champions Rangers International of Enugu, Lobi Stars of Makurdi, Nasarawa United, Kwara United and Niger Tornadoes.”
“What we used to have is a situation where venue assessors would have been compromised during the assessment process and would be caused to send reports that were conflicting with the real situation at those match venues. But now the situation is different because a whole lot of transparency has been thrown into the process and you can see that some of the affected clubs are big ones,” an official of a club who sought anonymity told our correspondent.
The clubs were in a jubilant mood when at the start of the season they received alerts of N10 million each as takeoff grants from the IMC. It is a development that was hitherto unrealistic in the league; they had been prosecuting matches season after season without financial compensation from the organising body. In the past, winners were not paid for their efforts even at the time when there were some forms of sponsorship.
A former Super Eagles and Shooting Stars goalkeeper Ike Shorunmu was surprised with the way the IMC kick started its journey by facilitating a takeoff grants for the clubs.
“I see that we are ready be-cause for the first time, we have a situation where teams were given takeoff grants to start the season and that is an indication that the IMC has started on a fine note and is ready; honestly I think they are ready and we can all hope for the best,” he said.
Another hallmark of the stride of the IMC is the prompt payment of referees’ indemnities and the increase in their emoluments. Bad officiating necessitated by the poor remuneration of the officiating officials had dogged the league in the past but with the efforts of the IMC, clear changes have been noticed as attested to by the away results recorded in the first stanza of the season.
“Referees will be paid before the day they will officiate. We have also increased their emoluments by 50%. Their transport allowance will also go up by 40%. This is to allow them to be more comfortable and not be put under pressure. We want to give our referees the chance to perform well so that they can get CAF and FIFA recognition,” Elegbeleye had said at the start of the season and has incredibly matched his talks with action.
Hooliganism and violence had been allowed to fester at match venues across the country because of selective adjudication that bothers on favouritism as well as punitive measures that were not fitting enough to serve as a deterrent but the IMC has not only been prompt in serving punishment to erring clubs but it has been just in the administration of justice.
Determined to stop hooliganism from messing up the new image it is building for the league, the IMC acted swiftly on the assault of an Assistant Referee at the Samson Siasia Stadium in Yenegoa by ordering the deduction of three points and three goals from Bayelsa United FC and announced the immediate closure to fans of the Maiduguri Township Stadium for El-Kanemi Warriors home fixtures over reported security breaches in the course of their match against Bendel Insurance. The suspension of an official of Shooting Stars who was seen urinating on the pitch and the imposition of a fine on the Ibadan-based club are some of the measures by the IMC to bring sanity to the league.
The monies paid to the clubs and referees are proceeds of the partnership between the IMC and GTI Group and the uniqueness of the template adopted by the duo ensured that the deposits to the beneficiaries were directly made by the sponsors.
“GTI are economists, they’re bankers, they promised to help us raise funds, using their image. As a very credible organization, we believe in them, but we said before we go ahead, how you can help our 20 clubs for a start because they need support. We agreed that N10m is given to each club, and this money was not given to IMC, it was credited directly to the accounts of the clubs, so we didn’t have access to the money. Secondly, on the issue of the referees, we said pay the referee directly from your account,” said Elegbeleye.
Although Dare gave the IMC unfettered autonomy to operate, the minister offers the body support when necessary. He played a part in the landmark agreement between the league body and the sponsors so much so that some unscrupulous elements alleged that he negotiated for commission an allegation that was vehemently condemned by Elegbeleye.
Elegbeleye said, “Such insinuation can only come from a sick mind, a jaundiced mind or a paid blackmailer because there is no N1billion anywhere. GTI is to raise the money.
“So for anyone to say GTI gave us 1 Billion Naira, 100 million Naira for the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, that shows they are part of the failed system. If Sunday Dare is a deal man, why did he fight the old system that had a lot of money to throw around to continue staying in office?”
The foundation for success is laid already and when the fruits of today’s efforts are harvested in the short and long term, the role played by Sunday Dare in the enthronement of a viable, robust league will certainly not be forgotten.