Licensed
by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) in 2013 to operate the Nigeria
Professional Football League (NPFL), the League Management Company (LMC) has
worked in concert with stakeholders to reform the League, rekindle the passion
of Nigerians to take pride in the League and to transform the League into a
viable and exciting commercial enterprise.
The LMC has a vision to make the
NPFL the preferred destination for West African football players.
Under
the LMC in the last four football seasons, the NPFL has been changing
from a league with lots of negative baggage to a product that has been
receiving favorable and positive appraisals from stakeholders cutting across
the clubs, the players, the media, corporate partners and the fans.
There
has been a steady progress since the LMC commenced operations with the
organization of four full League seasons that has been generally acknowledged
as the most exciting and rancor free in recent history. The LMC have also
within this period rekindled corporate interest in the League which translated
to title rights and broadcast rights partnerships with Globacom Limited and
SuperSport respectively from the outset and most recently the Nigeria Breweries
PLC with their flagship beer product, STAR. The NPFL also attracted strategic
partners from within and outside Nigeria in relationships that will serve to
grow revenue streams as well as enhance operational and technical capacity of
league and club management.
The reform
instituted by the LMC has been tailored to ensure compliance to global best
practices which hitherto has been largely observed in breach by the Clubs and
selectively enforced by previous operators of the League. These global best
practices are contained in the FIFA Club Licensing Regulation which came into
effect in 2008 and has been adopted by CAF and NFF. The LMC adopted the
provisions of the regulations to reposition Clubs in the League to enable them
take advantage of all commercial and technical opportunities that will lead to
increased affinity with the people and a reduction in government funding.
Club
Licensing Regulation is the basic working document through which the different
members of the football family aim to promote common principles in the world of
football such as sporting values, transparency in the finances, ownership and
control of clubs and the credibility and integrity of club competition.
One of
the present realities that the LMC sought to address was the perennial lack of
funding for the clubs. Whilst governments at the state level have for years
borne the burden of financing the activities of the clubs, it became
increasingly manifest that this is neither sustainable nor good for the
professional administration of the clubs in line with the NFF Club Licensing
Regulation. With the current economic realities of dwindling states’ revenue,
the LMC preached that the time has come to encourage a gradual divestment of
government from clubs while encouraging the community and businesses to
subscribe to club ownership. This has the twin effect of providing adequate
funding for the clubs and giving the communities a direct stake in their
darling clubs.
Pursuant
to this, the LMC entered a strategic partnership with NASD OTC Securities
Exchange to facilitate the enlistment of NPFL Clubs for public subscription to
generate needed funding for the clubs and also ensure appropriate corporate
governance in the management of the club.
A
successful execution of this strategic development plan will resolve the
notorious cases of Club indebtedness to players, poor infrastructure and
competitive welfare packages. The LMC has sought to encourage state
government owners of clubs to give the clubs the necessary assistance of making
public offers for stakes in the Club and constituting a proper board of
directors in line with the
Nigeria Company and Allied Matters Act. The LMC went further to provide models
for Community Ownership of Clubs designed from extensive study of successful
cases in Europe and Africa. So far, eight clubs were shortlisted for the pilot
project out of which four has received the consent of their state governments
to implement the enlistment.
A major
breakthrough in strategic relationship was that forged by the LMC with the
Spanish League, LaLiga, one of the world’s biggest football leagues. It has
already yielded huge dividends in its first year with the LMC presenting an
NPFL All-Star team that toured Spain in 2016 to participate in an international
world club championship tournament. An NPFL player, Ezekiel Bassey of Enyimba
International was recently transferred to LaLiga club, FC Barcelona thanks to
this working partnership between the NPFL and LaLiga.
With a
focus beyond the 90 minutes of football on the pitch, the LMC has sought to
exploit all commercial opportunities around the football to create a thriving
industry that will spin jobs in retail vending, media, telecommunication and
kits manufacturing to list a few.
From
inheriting a league with zero financial base, offering no reward for excellence
and imposing on clubs to pay match officials indemnities, the LMC has turned
around the financial fortunes of the NPFL to that which paid out a basic award
of N50m per club for participation, writes off indemnities for match officials
and declaring a savings of over N450m in the 2015/16 season.
Identifying
the challenge of winning back the hearts and mind of Nigerians from European
leagues, the LMC has consistently worked with the clubs to create engagement
platforms aimed at bringing back the fans to the stands, to the television
channels and second screen (media devices and platforms). The LMC social media
activities have attracted over 70, 000 followers on Twitter and the Facebook
page reaching over 20, 000 followers weekly. The NPFL website, www.npfl.ng
attracts over 10 million global visitors monthly.
OWNERSHIP
STRUCTURE
The LMC
is owned by the NFF and the participating Clubs. In implementing the FIFA
prescribed Club Licensing Regulation, only clubs which meet the requirements
and remain in the Nigeria Professional Football League at the start of the
season shall retain shares in the LMC.
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