Nigerian Football
Dangers, even before NPFL kicks off
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
It is a week to the kick-off of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL). But there are danger signals.
The NPFL board has ruled that there will be a jackpot of a minimum N100m for the winner.
There will be no take-off grant as it happened last season. The 2022/23 league season is easily adjudged as the best, even by the relegated clubs.
Great thanks to Gbenga Elegbeleye and his team in the now dissolved Interim Management Committee (IMC). They gave the Nigerian lead football league, a renewed hope.
Elegbeleye is back, even in greater capacity. The new season should build on the success of the last one.
Every club should have a cut of the pie. That has been the essence of expanding even flagship competitions such as the FIFA World Cup and the Africa Cup of Nations.
It is to ensure that the pot of money is spread, even to lower teams who would not have qualified if the prevailing size of teams were to be maintained.
In the case of the Nigerian domestic football league, the principle of proportional sharing should be activated.
By their callings, the 20 clubs in the NPFL are professionals.
Professionalism implies making money and having good returns. What then is the business sense in embarking on a tortuous venture that is capital and energy intensive but leaves one with ratio 1: 20 of success?
The reasoning behind a N100m jackpot is to give the league a colouration of affluence. It is mainly to prop up the sponsors – real or imagined.
It will therefore not do the league any good. In the NPFL, teams go for three stakes – becoming the champion, falling within the top three bracket to pick continental ticket and lastly, escaping relegation.
This is where the inbuilt damage mechanism lies. ‘Trading’ steps in. Teams struggling for title and top three positions may begin to reach out to middle placed clubs who are without any realistic chance of getting anything.
Since their positions are secured in the league, they may begin to seek avenues of augmenting their expenses.
This is where the dangers in ‘match buying and selling’ come in.
The same applies to the teams swimming in the murky waters of relegation. There is the tendency for them to ‘reach’ out to the clubs in safety zone for assistance.
Apart from the possible financial corruption already enunciated, fans may go violent to ‘safeguard’ the interest of their clubs.
It will therefore serve the NPFL well, if prize money is shared proportionally among the 20 competing teams.
The English Premier League is a model to glean from. All 20 clubs bank at least nine-figures for fulfilling their fixtures as richest league in the world returns with £2.2m on offer for every position.
Let the NPFL therefore have a rethink on the issue of prize money. If other sources of money roll in, as being envisaged, it is better for such to be channelled to the other 19 clubs instead of giving all to the eventual champion.
Lack or shortage of money may sniff out life from some of these clubs if a general principle of getting proportionally from the prize money pie is not applied.
Let’s recall the sad incidents of the 1987 season when suddenly, many privately owned and corporately run football clubs scrapped owing to ‘harvest’ of debts that the prevailing system offered.
Nigerian football has not recovered from that as most clubs in the country are state-run.
The NPFL should look into the issue of prize money for the clubs as it is done in the English Premier League and most other viable leagues of the world.
Estimated 2022/23 Premier League prize money
1 Manchester City £170m
2 Arsenal £167.8m
3 Manchester Unite £165.5m
4 Newcastle United £163.4m
5 Liverpool £161.2m
6 Brighton £159m
7 Aston Villa £156.8m
8 Tottenham Hotspur £154.6m
9 Brentford £152.4m
10 Fulham £150.2m
11 Crystal Palace £148m
12 Chelsea £145.8m
13 Wolves £143.6m
14 West Ham £141.4m
15 Bournemouth £139.2m
16 Nottingham Forest £137m
17 Everton £134.8m
18 Leicester £132.6m
19 Leeds £130.4m
20 Southampton £128.2m
The miserable run of Akwa United and Ikorodu City came to an end after six games in the Nigerian Premier League this season. Both teams were initially glued at the bottom of the league table.
They now got respite as Akwa United beat Kano Pillar by 2-0 while Ikorodu City even did what could be considered an upset, beating Bendel Insurance 3-0.
Remo Stars bounced back to the top of the log after a 3-0 defeat of Nasarawa United. Shooting Stars are yet to get their rhythm this season, playing a barren draw with Enyimba in Ibadan.
Kwara United who got their first full points of the season last week after a 1-0 defeat of Remo Stars could not consolidate as they were beaten 1-0 by Abia Warriors.
Heartland under Emmanuel Amuneke are gradually recovering as they got a valuable away draw against El-Kanemi Warriors.
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
It is 75 years since Nigeria’s national football team first played an international match. That was on 8 October 1949 when the first set of Nigeria’s assembly on their return voyage stopped over in Freetown and engaged Sierra Leone in an international football match. Nigeria won 2-0, setting a chain of positive results on 8 October.
The country never lost any competitive duel on that date. More significantly, the Super Eagles first qualified for the World Cup on an 8 October date.
That was in 1993 when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Algeria in the quest for USA ‘94 World Cup.
Nigeria became the first English-speaking African country to qualify for the World Cup. Another significance of the October 8 match at the July 5 Stadium, Algiers is that Nigeria were unbeaten for the first time by Algeria at home.
The only deviation from the 8 October Magic was in 2015 when Nigeria lost 2-0 to Congo in a friendly match.
Twenty-six years after Nigeria’s debut international match, one of Africa’s biggest football nations, Egypt fell to the October 8 magic, losing 4-0 to Nigeria in the last stage of the triangular World Cup qualifying series for Argentina ’78.
Up till October 15, 2013, when Ghana beat Egypt 6-1 in Kumasi, the October 8, 1977 duel with Nigeria remained Egypt’s biggest loss in a World Cup qualifying match.
Before the 1977 duel, Nigeria in 1963 played a friendly match with Liberia in Monrovia. The October 8 magic was active, even in an away match. Nigeria drew 2-2 in their very first encounter with Liberia. It was shortly after the team had, through a protest, upturned a victory by Guinea to pick Nigeria’s very first African Nations’ Cup ticket.
Little wonder then that when FIFA suspended Nigeria in 2010, the world governing body provisionally lifted the ban on October 8!
Nigeria on 8 October
- 1949 – Freetown (Friendly) Sierra Leone 0-2 Nigeria
- 1963 – Monrovia (Friendly) Liberia 2-2 Nigeria
- 1977 – Lagos (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 4-0 Egypt
- 1993 – Algiers (World Cup qualifier) Algeria 1-1 Nigeria… qualify for USA ‘94.
- 2005 – Abuja (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 5-1 Zimbabwe
- 2010 – FIFA, in apparent respect to the 8 October magic, provisionally lifted a ban imposed on Nigeria.
- 2011 – Abuja (African Nations Cup qualifier) Nigeria 2-2 Guinea. Although undefeated, Nigeria failed to make it to the 2012 African Nations Cup.
- 2015 – D.R. Congo beat Nigeria 2-0 in Visé, Belgium. The ‘October 8 Magic’ is finally broken.
Rivers United have launched themselves to the top of the log at the end of the match day 5 of the Nigeria Premier League. The Port Harcourt side beat Akwa United 2-1 to go afloat after initial leaders, Remo Stars crumbled to a 1-0 defeat at Kwara United in Ilorin on Sunday.
It was Remo Stars’ first defeat in the season. Rivers United are now with 13 points. Stephen Mayo put Rivers United ahead after 31 minutes. But it turned a temporary lead as Akwa United bounced back almost at the blast of the referee’s whistle for the second half.
Friday Apollos levelled up for Akwa United before Ndifreke Effiong Udo scored the winner in the 85th minute.
Sunday Results
- Kwara United 1-0 Remo Stars
- Rangers International 1-0 Abia Warriors
- Heartland FC 2-0 Niger Tornadoes
- Kano Pillars 2-0 Sunshine Stars
- Plateau United 1-0 Ikorodu City
- Rivers United 2-1 Akwa United
- Enyimba 3-0 Katsina United* Suspended
- Nasarawa 0-0 Bayelsa United
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