The National Association of Nigeria Footballers (NANF) has described as “bogus” a broadcast deal for the NPFL announced by the League Management Company (LMC) several months before the Coronavirus Pandemic,
“The LMC) launched a bogus Next Television sponsorship deal with so much fanfare and razzmatazz,” alleged NANAF president Harrison Jalla
“In a frenzy their media cohorts went to town paying glowing tribute to their pay masters in a purported deal that will rake in hundreds of millions of US Dollars.
“But how do you enter into a contract with a cable television station that has no presence in Africa?”
Jalla recounted that before the LMC hijacked the NPFL, the NPL as it was then called, had annual income of about $25m in the 2010/2011 and this was inspite of the fact that MTN sponsorship deal was killed in broad daylight, a sponsorship that would have turned the fortunes of Nigeria football around.
“Give or take, the LMC inherited a commercially viable league with annual income value in excess of $25m with an unlimited potential to grow, handed over by the late Oyiuki Obaseki, Prince Davidson Owumi, and then Rumson Baribote,” he said.
“The LMC headed by Shehu Dikko is a contraption that came to maim the league, in less than four years it ran the league aground.
“SuperSport TV, frustrated by how finances were being recklessly handled, walked away even in the currency of an ongoing contract.
“Unfortunately the clubs who were supposed to superintend over the LMC as a holding company of the league and hold them accountable to the clubs to ensure the clubs get a fair share of their income ,under the aegis of the club owners Association of Nigeria has turned themselves to errand boys of the LMC and even an extension of their media unit.
“The appointed officials of the club owners are the ones advertising the LMC and singing their praise to high heavens, they have completely abandoned their primary responsibility, which is to protect the interest of the clubs.
“No properly funded private club would accept the current status of the LMC and how the league is currently being managed.
“The LMC is having its way because the clubs are all being funded by government and the officials of the club owners are in alliance with the LMC to fritter the funds of the league away.”
He continued: “All NPFL clubs have found themselves in what we refer in the local parlance as “ONE CHANCE” with the LMC and the only solution is for the clubs to go back to elect their leaders.
“How much have the NPFL clubs earned from the LMC in the last three years?
“The LMC contraption was concocted as a drain pipe to defraud the NPFL clubs, the role of Mediterranean Sports Limited justifies this assertion.”
