Glo Premier League clubs have been asked to take
advantage of the Elite Players Scheme introduced by the
LMC since 2014 season to inject Nigerian players with
specified national team caps as part of strategies to
rekindle greater following for the domestic league as well as
attract sponsors to the clubs.
While speaking at a recent interactive session with Sports
Editors, the Chairman of the League Management Company
(LMC) and NFF Vice President, Mallam Shehu Dikko noted
that a number of incentives have been put in place to not
only encourage the clubs but also to assist them implement
ideas to bring back the fans to the games and also attract
credible sponsors to the clubs.
"Last season, the Elite Players Scheme was introduced and
one of the objectives was to include in our clubs' squads,
players who have made name and are popular amongst the
fans and their community.
The presence of these players
just like late Rasheed Yekini did for Gateway FC, is bound
to draw a good number of fans to watch them play again.
On the part of the LMC, the scheme has assigned the
responsibility of paying such players a certain amount which
we worked out while the club can pay bonuses and any
other expenses they are able to afford and the players can
be registered at any time of the season for any specified
period agreed with the player", explained Dikko in response
to a suggestion by Ade Ojeikere of The Nation newspaper.
The LMC Chairman revealed that so far the scheme yielded
result when Sani Kaita joined Enyimba last season as his
presence in Port Harcourt drew a large turnout in the
match against Sharks which ordinarily hardly attracts more
than a thousand. In fact anywhere Enyimba went to play
fans use to come out asking for Sani Kaita.
He enumerated other incentives to include bonuses to clubs
that succeed in getting more than five thousand to their
home games, performance bonuses to clubs to win or draw
away games aimed at assuring fans of the credibility and
integrity of matches as well as financial support to clubs
to maintain infrastructure mainly the pitches, dressing room
and public amenities at their grounds.
He identified instability in club administration as one of the
banes of the league as the club managers focus more on
winning games to guarantee their tenure rather than
focusing on developmental programmes due to largely no
fault of theirs.
"I will support a tenured and or rather a contract
appointment for our club administrators by their respective
state government owners with define tenure and deliverables
because we have seen the clubs simply focusing on how to
win matches and trophies to make their employers happy
rather than seeking a wholesome approach to developing their
clubs. Most club chairmen are unnecessarily distracted from
paying the required attention to development programs such
as running an academy and professional training and
welfare of the teams as they are always under pressure to
win matches and give the government a public relations
leverage even when the Government have not met its
obligations to the Club by way of releasing funds timely.
Furthermore, they have other people alway working to get
them out of office and this again forces them to spend
time covering their flanks rather than putting energy
towards the club development", lamented Dikko.
Thus I will always advocate and will push for a proper
contract between the Government and or the Private Club
owner with the Club chairmen/administrators with a specified
tenure, deliverables and compensation scheme as done
internationally so a stable environment will be created for
the chairmen to focus on their core jobs of professionally
managing the development of the clubs, Dikko further
stated.
He however believes these would be a thing of the past
when government club owners agree to divest and open club
ownership to the communities and individual investors.
"Appointments will be backed by proper professional
contracts and based more on capacity to run the clubs in
line to the vision of the owner and perhaps profitability
rather than some of the present considerations and the club
administrators and indeed the league will generally be better
for it".
He assured that the LMC will at all times explore
opportunities that will increase the revenue base of the
League and the clubs.
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