The National Association of Nigeria Footballers (NANF) has alleged that the League Management Company (LMC) has breached a subsisting commercial rights agreement with Next Digital Broadcasting after announcing on Tuesday, September 8, 2020, that the same rights have been sold to Redstrike Sports Marketing.
“The LMC/NPFL may soon be entangled in a protracted legal battle with Next Digital Broadcasting due to criminal breach of a subsisting Agreement Executed on November 5, 2019, which transferred all NPFL commercial rights to a Joint Venture Company (JVC) where Next Digital Broadcasting has controlling shares,” warned NANF president Harrison Jalla in a press statement.
“The Joint Venture Company (JVC) owns the NPFL commercial rights for an initial five years with option of automatic extension for another five years according to NANF sources.
“And the Board of the JVC was said to have two directors from the LMC/NPFL and three directors from Next Digital Broadcasting and it was further revealed that as part of the executed agreement Shehu Dikko received in the United States Dollars equivalent of close to 200 million Naira as signature fee and negotiations guarantee from Next Digital Broadcasting.”
Jalla further questioned: “Why would Shehu Dikko so brazenly breach a subsisting agreement?
“What impact would this action have on our domestic leagues that have already been ran aground?”
NANF said it will do a short series on the LMC/NPFL/Next Digital Broadcasting saga before bringing it to the front burner by calling a press conference with an open invitation to both LMC and Next Digital to state their sides of the story if they so wish.
