The chairman of the Nigeria Premier Football League, Honourable Gbenga Elegbeleye is not lying low in his mission to transform the league. He speaks passionately and dreams big about it.
The Nigerian Premier Football League has come a long way. Despite its robust past, the league’s recent history, has been incongruous. Of late however, the NPFL has witnessed tremendous improvements in many aspects especially, since the inception of the Honourable Gbenga Elegbeleye leadership. One area that stands out is officiating. The must win-at-home syndrome has given way to winning from a team playing well, home or away.
Conversely, a team can lose when they play badly, home or away. The chairman of the NPFL had this to say, “Officiating has improved so much that win-at-all-cost has gone. Niger Tornadoes went to Makurdi and defeated Lobi Stars. The other week, Enugu Rangers lost to Kano Pillars at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu. All this is evident that there has been a level playing ground for all the teams, where anybody can win anywhere.”
The development has given rise to a return of confidence in the participating clubs and the players, in particular, who now know they can win on the road, away from home. The players now express themselves to their full potential without fear of undue harassment as, apart from the security in place, there are adequate measures, put in place by the NPFL to check the excesses of clubs and officiating officials. In footballing sense, the unpredictability of the outcome of games has brought back the excitement and made the league more interesting and as a result crowds have started returning to the stadiums to watch matches.
More importantly, the Nigerian Premier League is on television. StarTimes, the digital television channel beams no fewer than four matches a week. The NPFL Chairman, Hon Gbenga Elegbeleye confirmed to Sports Vanguard. “Our league is on TV. StarTimes is our official television channel and at least four matches are shown each week.” He added that “the NPFL is also streamed live and can be watched on smart phones.” The arrangement is that the number of matches aired by StarTimes will be increased to six at some point.
However, that is not to say it is uhuru yet for the NPFL. The question of players’ welfare and remuneration is still a factor mitigating against the growth and development of the league. It is also influencing players’ flight to other countries.
Nigerian players can now be found in countries like the Republic of Benin, Togo, Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania and mostly north of African countries. “Ordinarily,” a concerned commentator said, “there is nothing bad in having players scattered all over the world,” but asked, “what is the quality of the leagues they are running to? What is the football pedigree of these countries they go to?” Former Nigeria international, Dr Segun Odegbami once wrote that players who go to such remote leagues hardly break into prominence. “They play until they pass their prime without achieving any breakthrough and are forgotten,” he once lamented in his Vanguard weekly column, ‘The Mathematical’
One cannot entirely blame it on the players, given the harsh economic situation in Nigeria which is exacerbated by the fluctuating value of the Naira. “Countries like Sudan, Ethiopia pay their players in Dollars,” a source said. But Honourable Elegbeleye said some of the players going abroad are beginning to return to the Nigeria league. “One went to Benin and he was being paid in CEFA. When he started buying some personal items, food, rent, and all, he realised that the cost of those items were abominable when converted to Naira. He saw the futility in it all and decided to return because the difference was not much with what he was earning here.”
Elegbeleye admitted that the wave of players’ flight was affecting the league, particularly, the clubs. Speaking on why Nigerian clubs have been lagging behind in the continent, the NPFL boss said the struggles of Nigerian clubs in CAF inter-club competitions was not a true measure of the quality of the Nigeria Premier Football League. He said, “When a club emerge as champions of the league this year, nine to ten of them depart before the next season. When most of those that won the league are gone, what can a coach do? That tells a lot on the club.”
Continuing, he emphasised, “Two or three would have been okay, but a scenario where a club would lose like ten players in a season never augurs well for such a club.”
He refused to blame the quality of Nigerian coaches, pointing out that the technical capacity of some of them was among the best one can find anywhere in Africa. “We have good coaches. People like Daniel Ogunmodede of Remo Stars, Fidelis Ilechukwu of Enugu Rangers and others can hold their own anywhere,” he recommended, saying that more than anything else, the flight of players from clubs was enough to disrupt the plan of even the best coach in the world.
He informed that the NPFL was mulling the introduction of strict contract regimes that will tie down player for at least two years and above to a club. “We are proposing to introduce that from next season. A player must see his contract to the end. That will check the random movement of players and will bring some orderliness and sanity to the league.”
Despite that, the NPFL is looking forward to proposing measures that will see clubs generate enough funds to cater for the welfare of the players. He remarked that there is a limit to which clubs can be stretched, “You realise that most football clubs in Nigeria are owned by government. The state governments are responsible for everything including players’ salaries. Without any apology, I always maintain that government has no business running football. We will do everything to encourage private ownership of football clubs. A perfect example is Honourable Kunle Soname, owner of Remo Stars who has invested so much in football. Government’s role should be the provision of the enabling environment for football to thrive. Football is strictly business and we want a complete turnaround. We want clubs to be commercially oriented.”
He observed that the league was improving.“The league has attracted interests from abroad and very soon, we will start reaping from efforts we are putting in to lift the standard of the league.” He said.
We would not let him go without touching on the issue of why the NPFL was not on SuperSport, a popular digital television outfit on MultiChoice. We asked, why did SuperSport leave? Honourable Elegbeleye said, “I wasn’t there when they backed out of the deal. When we came on board, I approached them, but they were not interested.”
The NPFL boss praised the quality of NPFL products, saying that many of them could make the Super Eagles Team A squad. “Definitely, some of them are so good. Coach Chelle has been to the CHAN camp and seen them for himself. They are good.”
“We want Nigerians to believe in the system. It is our own and only we can make it the league of our dreams.”