By Saidu Abubakar
Football pundits consider as New Year resolution – since last season came to a close in July 2022 -changes introduced in the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) which include new league body, abridged league format, TV right, take-off grants to clubs as well as upward review of prize monies with a view to boosting the morale of the competing teams to give in their best.
Valuechain recalls that the Federal Government, in September last year, sacked the League Management Company (LMC), after overseeing the NPFL through almost a decade, replacing it with an Interim Management Committee (IMC).
A statement by the Sports Ministry last September read thus: “In view of the several unpleasant incidents regarding the management of the Nigerian Football League, specifically, the declaration of the National Football League (NFL) as an illegal body by the Court; the Statutes of the League Management Company (LMC), the NFL’s successor-in-title being outside the purview of the Statutes of the NFF; the Federal Government is constrained to withdraw its recognition of the LMC as the operator of the Nigerian Professional Football League, with immediate effect.”
The Ministry of Sports and Youths Development declared LMC as “illegal” and not recognised by the government, claiming that the LMC Statutes “is outside the purview of the Statutes of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF)”.
An Interim Management Committee (IMC) headed by Hon. Gbenga Elegbeleye, was appointed to take over the affairs of the league with Paul Bassey as vice chairman and Davidson Owumi as head of operations. The change forced a delay in the commencement of a new league season, resulting however, in the abridged league format that is now in force.
For the 2022/23 abridged league, 20 clubs are drawn into two groups — A and B — with 10 in each group. The top three teams from each group will proceed to a Super Six tournament that will determine the eventual winner of the campaign.
Defending the decision, Ibrahim Gusau, NFF President, said “people that are going to bring money into the league” demanded that the NPFL must adjust its calendar to be in tandem with other leagues in the rest of the world.
“The issue of playing an abridged league is a child of necessity. We are talking with people that are going to bring money into the league and they want us to make sure that at least we take back our league to the way it is being run in other parts of the world,” he said.
“Therefore, we need to take certain actions before we can get there. Ending our league in May does not mean it stops there. That is not the only issue. The issue here is that we must start next season by August. There is no going back about it,” he pointed out, stressing that for the first time after a while, the NPFL might be returning to TV screens.
To that effect, Hon. Elegbeleye revealed that the IMC has been able to secure sponsorship for the League. “Once the issue of club licensing and all the participating clubs present standard pitches good enough to be shown on television,” he said earlier before last January 8 kick-off of the abridged league.
“We have a number of sponsors already that will enable the league to be shown on TV. However, we still need to brief the NFF on the sponsorship. What I can assure everyone is that this season’s league will be better than what we were used to.”
The organisers have since announced that the winner of the 2022/23 NPFL season will pocket N100 million. A figure that doubles the prize pocketed by Rivers United for winning the 2021/22 season.
“Mind you, N50m was promised to Rivers United who won the league last season and are yet to be paid, so we will not promise what we will not do and we are ready to give Nigerians the best gift,” Elegbeleye submitted.
Recently, all the 20 NPFL clubs were handed N10 million each as take-off grant for 2022/2023 season, presented to them by the IMC in partnership with GTI Group, an investment bank.
Elegbeleye said the funding serves as an aid to the clubs in their preparation for the new league campaign.