The 2019/20 NPFL season has been bedevilled by several delays and postponements but a new date has finally been fixed for the commencement of the league season with the fundamental problems of the local league having been identified.
Honourable Nduka Irabor, pioneer Chairman of the League Management Company (LMC), has revealed the factors responsible for the inability of the league to run without interruption.
Irabor, who has announced his intentions to quit his position with the League Management Company come December, said one of the problems facing the league is lack of money from broadcast right.
“Our inability to get our local tax funded television station to buy right into our products, is one of the problems,” he began.
“We pay tax to Government, but why can’t we buy the game for NTA? By doing so, the league is going to get money to run itself.
“Today the league needs between 1.5b to 2.5b naira to operate every season.
“Where is that money going to come from? It’s going to come from the industry, but the first products is the broadcast right into the league, Supersports goes away and then we are flat.
“Two seasons ago we experimented with NTA, but it will surprised you that the experiment with NTA was partially successful, but it was turning things pyramid round, the league paid NTA for the production.
“It does not happen anywhere in the world, the television pays the league, not the other way round.
“Right now we are all want to see attractive football when we have not organise the Clubs, let us have the basic fundamental structures, we only have boys who are rushing to play the game without proper training, they are not well funded funding , if they are properly funded they won’t be rushing abroad for Greener pastures, it’s a circle.
“We are in this country seeing our corporate bodies, companies we patronize with our own money taken the money they made from Nigeria to buy into the broadcast right of European football and we are saying the standard of game is going down.” Hon. Irabor concluded.
