Shehu Dikko, chairman of League Management Company in charge of Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) speaks to the media in an interview on the League and other football matters via NSM WhatsApp sports platform. FRANCIS ACHI, Senior Correspondent, PM EXPRESS in Abuja was on the WhatsApp group
Just recently the club owners met and voted to end the league after 24 games, Nigerians wants to know if Lobi Stars are the league champions or just continental representatives of Nigeria.
The league was declared concluded for the reasons stated in our public notice and thus Lobi Stars that are on top of the NPFL table are to represent Nigeria at the CAF Champions League If you look at the history of the league from beginning to Match Day 24 and check out Lobi Stars records and stats we can say they worth it
About five options were provided and debated on and at the end of the day it was unanimously agreed to take the option that was taken for several compelling reasons. Some of the options were:
1. Continue to play the league and at the end of the time CAF authorizes we then stop and whoever is on top will be submitted to CAF and a play off organize for relegation..
2. Play six matches and Stop the league and organize Playoff to determine winner and relegation.
3. Play four games and stop the league and organize playoffs for both relegation and winner but with fewer teams as per in 2 above..
4. Stop the league at week 24 and either organize a 10 team play off or declare the top team to represent Nigeria and no relegation..
5. Group the teams at neutral venues close by and they played all the outstanding matches every two days until they finished all the matches
Number 4 was accepted but without the play off.
With the AITEO Cup and nine more games in the NNL still to play, what is the assurance that these will be completed by the end of October so that the four promoted sides would have been determined before a likely start of the league. In short, how feasible is the November date for the start of a new season?
AITEO Cup would finish based on the time table by October 14
NNL has up to November first week to finish the nine games so they have enough time. Absolutely, we don’t envisage problems here. We have to work to meet up with CAF deadline to finish the 2019 season by May as the next season (2020) starts August 2019, so it’s no more an option but something we all must work to achieve.
Will LMC present trophy and prize money for winning the league to Lobi Stars? For record purpose, we want to know club owners who voted to declare Lobi Stars representatives of Nigeria and those that voted against the decision.
Our public notice is very clear on this and honestly if the League voted to be declared concluded in Week 24 so the top team have to be accorded all respect and honour as necessary since they earn to be at the top as at Week 24. The voting was transparent and unanimous. Though every club was given right to make it comments and suggestion before it was agreed.
What progress has been made about televising the matches on TV. Are we going to continue with NTA or is there plans to bring a much better medium to show the games?
Well, we are making huge progress and we have concluded and agreed a new project with a world class broadcast and commercial partner which the LMC AGM held in Port Harcourt authorized us to proceed to sign. Unfortunately the adverse situation Nigerian football find itself after the World Cup has stalled this process and now the conversation has been suspended by the partners until further notice. Probably if they can see the light that their investment would be safe as they are looking to sign off for a long term contact they will proceed with the talks. This is part of the tragedy and hazards the type of avoidable situation we find ourselves, but we still hopeful all will come good at the end of the day.
What happened to the under 18 tournament that LMC team went to play in South Africa in 2016. What also happened to the under 15 league programme and what is the latest about the package of exchange of programme with LA Liga on coaching education and the referee.
Well, the U18 tournament we played in South Africa in 2017 was all part of the La Liga project and our NPFL youth programme has been beneficial to us. As at today four players from the U-20 are from that squad and about seven or so are already in various academies in Europe while others are main players in the NPFL. So it’s a huge success and we hope to continue. The U-15 NPFL league is also highly successful, some of the players are playing for the U-17 national team. Unfortunately, this 2018 program scheduled for this summer has to be cancelled by the La liga as a result of the crisis in our football, but they promised to continue in 2019. This year, the plan was to take the winners to Spain but so sad it didn’t happen for no fault of the kids or the La liga or the NPFL.
The coaching program would likely continue next year as it’s usually held in February. Since we started, we have train over 100 coaches. We are still working with La liga in all fronts and you may recall the match we played between the Super Eagles B and Athletico Madrid. While clubs in South Africa are paying huge sums to play Barcelona we were able get Athletico Madrid to play against us in Uyo at no cost, thanks to La liga and SuperSport.
At this point, we should rather look forward than backward. What’s done is done. I would rather wish that the LMC should organize the new season in such a way as to ensure it ends latest mid-May next year. This is in view of the AFCON 2019 that has been scheduled to hold in June. Hopefully, our league would henceforth be run from August to May. I am aware, however, that this looks a tall order in view of the “factors” that always militate against especially the government-owned clubs in the NPFL. But, isn’t this achievable?
This is exactly what has been plan even before the crisis and it’s no more an option as I said but something that has to be done. Also if you look at the last three seasons, NPFL always starts at a given date and ends at the agreed date. I think it’s something we will achieve. Already, the draft schedule is being worked out and the plan is for us to finish by May.
We plan is for us to do two groups of 12 teams and then to a super league of the top three from each group, which also would be played in a league format. so we hope this format would give us an exciting season to repay the fans and sponsors for the unintended mishap of this season which we sincerely apologize for from both LMC and the Clubs but we have to take the hard decision which we hope we can turn to one huge positive gain for the league and our overall football industry in the long run.
The biggest worry about the league has to do with the clubs making the games attractive to fans to elicit attendance; the games televised to appeal to football fans; and the clubs activating the various revenue generating streams to run sustainably and profitably. How is the LMC tackling these?
We have been doing so much as you can see over the years but really it’s a case of Chicken and egg.
Which one comes first? I can tell you every club and administrator knows clearly and appreciates what to do to make this happen but issue of stability of the system and finance are very fundamental.
For instance once a club lose two games at home we would have all sorts of stories and pressure on the club chairman, the coach and even players? This is not given room for development and proper organization but just to win games, that is why we introduced the “Beyond the Three Points” programme to change this narrative, but sincerely we have to carry out an institutional and system reset to achieve this. On the finance, most clubs run mainly on operations budgets and not on investment funds, so they have little to invest towards development and or infrastructure. Here we are working to go back to the basics to see if we can set up a process that would not just bring in the funds but also protects the industry from the foreign football and appetite for this foreign football by our corporate world. All these will be captured in our second programme called “Football Means More”. Hopefully all would come together with our new broadcast deal and the right funding streams will be open for the league to drive proper investment at all levels.
Remember we have already 10 clubs being prepared to be listed at the second stock exchange for private sector to come and invest.
We also pushing the government at the highest level to see the need to invest in upgrading infrastructure just like it were done at the start of the EPL in 1992 when UK government put £200m to provide EPL with right infrastructures to start. Today UK government is making £3billion in taxes annually from EPL and sustaining 12,000 directs jobs and several hundred thousands of indirect jobs, we can achieve this template in Nigeria if we get the right support across board.
As the second vice president of the NFF are you comfortable with the performance of the Golden Eaglets in two matches?
Again, the media is truly not happy with the NFF. In what they describe as perceived apathy towards the media, the journalists are sad that apart from the Super Eagles, there are no media officers attached to any of the national teams. Why?
Yes we are quite happy and I am personally happy seeing players from NPFL Under 15 doing well. We also have several players from the NFF U-15 national championship and the NFF Under 15 Future Eagles.
What this means is that the youth development programme under the current NFF administration is delivering dividends and the work being done by our youth committee under Vice President Seyi Akinwunmi is working correctly and the investment of Zenith Bank on the programme is not in vain.
It’s not about winning but discovering and given this youngsters a pathway to achieve their potentials – our future Eagles. Issue of Media would be addressed and we apologize for this and once again I blame it on instability that is affecting our planning.
There is this nagging issue of expanding the clubs ownership structure to allow for community and private investments especially in state govt owned clubs. Why is this not working?
I have dealt with this in one of my responses above. We are working to sort it out
This is why we signed MOU with the NASD Exchange, and we have the consents from 10 clubs (state government owners) to get the clubs on the exchange for private sector investment. Part of the product is the community ownership but the other key details of stabilizing the system and to show the investors the potentials in the system.
Sooner than later this program would come through but we all must behave ourselves and ensure a stable systems is operated at all levels.
As the Second Vice President of the NFF, what is the NFF doing to ensure that subsequent election is crisis free just like it has always been the norm?
You may recall that the NFF at its annual congress in Jos October 2017 passed a resolution to change the election year out of World Cup year and also amend the statutes to make it more in tune with the time. This process was delayed as we are waiting for the NFF bill to be finalized so all that will be done would conform to be bill to avoid any conflict.
So be rest assured huge reforms in the system would take place once the bill is sorted and all this issues would be sorted. Hopefully, we would have the stable system we craved for soonest.
There have been conflicting reports regarding the debts to some national team members like the Super Falcons, Falconets and the Flamingoes. What is being done to offset these debts?
The issue of debts is certainly something very interesting. When NFF pays no one talks but once there is an issue which usually is about delays getting anticipated revenues you hear all kind of stories. For instance, NFF worked and ensure it raised the $2.8m and paid the World Cup players and even those that participated in the qualifiers, likewise the CHAN teams were paid their share of the prize money, no one hear anything and several others. So be rest assured if any team is owed they will be paid accordingly. As at last week, our finance committee met to determine all debts including staff claims and set a plan to pay all and so the next dispensation can start on a clean sheet. But note that it’s not easy as even federal government runs on a deficit budget and so also NFF but our long term plans is to ensure we attract private funding support to take care of all basic expenditures to avoid this delays in payment. In the future we may be having operating surplus budget if we continue on the current trajectory.
Can LMC mandate the clubs to be disclosing the transfer fees of their players to clubs abroad.
It’s always there on the DTMS. You can’t hide this anymore, but even in Europe, it is not all transfer that is made public but it’s there on the DTMS and must be reflected on the clubs audited account.
Well thankfully the current NFF is the first federation in Africa to adopt the FIFA DTMS and you can see how it has created sanity in our transfer system. The NFF would look at publishing this transfer data going forward like it’s being done in Europe.
What happened to the listing of clubs on the stock exchange?
It’s still in progress but going slowly not as fast as we anticipated. We will get there very soon.