THE DWINDLED FORTUNES OF THE NIGERIA PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE (NPFL).

The Nigerian Premier League which was established in 1972 originally with 6 teams. On the 12th of May, 1990, at the Onikan Stadium, Lagos, the league was given a name and it was then known as the “Professional League”. In exercising its rights derived from the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Act 1990 as the sole regulatory authority for football in Nigeria, the NFF which is the rightful owner of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) issued the license to organize and regulate the top tier league to the League Management Company (LMC) for the purpose of organizing and promoting the league to meet global technical and commercial standards.

However, in November 2012 with the agreement of the National Sports Commission, Nigeria’s sports regulatory authority, the NFF constituted an Interim Management Committee (IMC) for the league as part of measures to avert a total collapse of the top tier professional league following the downfall of the Nigeria Football League (NFL) which arose from difficult legal and administrative impediments. The first step the LMC took was to rebrand the League name from Nigerian Premier League to the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL). Also, the LMC signed a $34m TV rights deal to broadcast the league matches which lasted till 2017.

It so sad that a highly commercially viable league is unable to fetch a major sponsor over the years. In the early 2000s, two telecommunication giants in Nigeria jostle for sponsorship rights of the league and it has been 5 years since we last saw our league games on TV even if the LMC came up with a streaming app on mobile devices which couldn’t last up to a season. In the 90s, the league was the backbone of our national teams for players but reverse is the case presently. The welfare and pay package of players is nothing to write home about.

Our League has lost It mojo whereby players preferred to play in the league of neighboring countries and every season we lose our best for greener pastures sake.It has been five months since a piece of action took place in our league.

How did we get here? This is the question every local football aficionados need to ask ourselves.

With the recent scrapping of the League Management Company (LMC) by the Hon. Minister for Youths and Sports, Sunday Dare and setting up an Interim Management Committee (IMC) chaired by Hon. Gbenga Elegbeleye. With this, I hope it will breath a fresh air.

Ajibaye Gazali Babatunde