Wanted: New Nigeria league organisers

Ade Ojeikere

 

I’M not a prophet of doom. I’m just worried about the dearth of the domestic league with those in authority to effect the desired changes watching in awe. It is important to remind observers of the game that this contraption of league organisation arose from the brave effort of former sports minister Retired Colonel Musa Mohammed, who didn’t see the rationale in putting the country’s domestic league structure in the hands of one or two staff, with its office space looking dingy and not befitting to show visitors, especially investors.

Musa Mohammed craved for a local league that could be the best in Africa, at least with good administration whose watchword would be to run the place as a business concern not a platform for the boys to further corrupt the system, leaving the coaches, players and officials on the lurch in abject penury. The former minister couldn’t understand how players and coaches were leaving in droves to Europe and indeed other African nations in search of greener pastures. For Musa Mohammed, the star trek to African clubs was an indictment on the game’s administration considering that the Nigeria league was the Mecca for other Africans in the past. The minister wanted an immediate restoration of the old order but with people who could think outside the box, not those waiting to spend government’s yearly subvention.

Musa Mohammed wanted the league to be independent of the rot at the better forgotten Glasshouse in Abuja. The soldier man administrator was convinced that the game could be run without government subvention at the level since 80 per cent of the clubs in the elite class were government owned. He, therefore used his relationship to convince the governors to fund their teams. The former sports minister wasn’t prepared to listen to the NFA rhetoric as it concerns its propriety or otherwise. For Musa, change was necessary and he set out by constituting a 12-man committee to redefine the way the Nigeria league should be run – as a business devoid of the bottlenecks at NFA and in his ministry.

Musa’s 12-man Interim Management League Board was rejected by those masquerading as stakeholders, with majority of them being club owners without paying a dime for such teams to strive. Musa wasn’t prepared to do business with the so called club owners and stakeholders, who later surrendered and accepted an admixture of their list and the minister’s. The NFA board as they were then known kicked but the minster stuck to his guns alluding to Act 101 which gave him the powers to intervene in any matter in the place. He saw his intervention as one which would change the way the game was being run.

Before the inauguration of the IMLB, clubs won matches through board room points, many of such outside the field practices  fuelled by facts provided by those running the competition to those who could afford the cost of such information. In fact, a former Lagos based club won matches at the board room for offences bordering on players having collected the maximum three mandatory yellow cards for such players to miss the next game. Of course with poor documentation, some of these clubs were not informed of the players who should miss such matches. So, those clubs with the cash bought such vital hints and waited until after such matches to submit their protests within the stipulated 48 hours notice for such a case.

Until the formation of the ILMB, clubs paid referees’ emoluments, housed them, fed them in the hotels and brought them to the match venues and out of it. This practice was fraught with fraudulent tendencies which the clubs exploited greatly. Buoyant clubs seized the day and spoilt the match officials with good ‘hospitality’, leaving the match arbiters with no other option than to ensure such teams win such games at all cost. Those stubborn referees were beaten groggy by such clubs’ irate fans. With such dangerous settings, urchins at match venues ran riot, injuring the referees while the fans were forced to run through tear gas shot by security personnel inside the stadium in a bid to exit the premises.

Until the formation of the ILMB, departmental heads of the league department gave their favoured referees many matches with some handling particular teams’ away games. The result of such a dastardly act was that such teams never lost such matches. In fact, as the league drew nearer to its end, such matches ended in victories for the away teams at the board room, largely because such games are stalemated by the home fans who smell a rat in the handling of their matches. We had a preponderance of teams playing outside their designated venues as punishment. Many cannot forget how Kwara United FC of Ilorin was relegated in 1999 because the club’s management had issues with the Nigerian referees.

Irate fans of Kwara United went haywire in that match against Lobi Stars after the Makurdi side scored the opening goal in the opening minutes of the encounter. For the Ilorin fans, it was not only a taboo for the away side to score and to even have the guts to do so in the first ten minutes was absolutely unbearable.

In the ensuing fracas, Late Col Dogo Yabilsu who was the centre referee in that match was beaten to stupor and had to be smuggled out of the stadium disguised as a woman.

Unfortunately for Kwara United, Col Yabilsu who was brutalised by their fans was the then chairman of the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA) and every league follower knew that only a miracle would have stopped the Afonja Warriors from being relegated. The rest they say is history as Kwara United was banished to Calabar where they expectedly didn’t win any match before going on relegation.

The ripple effect of this maladministration of the league was that our representatives at the CAF inter-club competitions didn’t justifiably represent the country with their shambolic performances. In fact, it was the practice then for new winners of the Nigeria league to replace those who won them the title the previous year with new recruits. This tardy arrangement underscored how these winners emerged with the owners knowing all the unscrupulous methods they used to grab the needed points on the pitch and at the boardroom. The talk in town by one of the regular winners of the league is that the owners know how they won the title and couldn’t be worried if the winning coaches and players are replaced for the better ones. Wonderful. yet the organisers didn’t call such officials to explain what they meant by such unworthy declaration.

Musa Mohammed’s ILMB started by stopping the practice where clubs paid referees. This move reduced the level of contact between referees and the clubs, although members of the local chapels of the referee body still influenced the gullible ones amongst their mates. The ILMB paid referees’ indemnities into their accounts before match days. the board paid for the hotels and ensured they stationed strong willed match commissioners to ensure strict enforcement of the rules. Match commissioners ensured that games don’t begin except all the requirements specified for hosting matches are met, including the number of security operatives (50) at that time.

It is on record that the ILMB prosecuted a fan who was caught by operatives after pummelling a referee in home game involving Bendel Insurance FC in Benin City. It served as a deterrent to others, forcing such a reduction in cases of mayhem at match venues. This holigan was caught by the ILMB chairman who watched the game and recognised him, althuhg the cameras captured his animalistic acts against the referee.

But the biggest fillip the ILMB brought to the league organisation was the live television coverage deal it struck with African Independent Television (AIT), which deployed its Outstation Broadcast (OB) vans to beam matches to Nigerians wherever they were. AIT’s live coverage of matches helped to embolden referees to be fair, knowing that any untoward acts by clubs or their touts would be captured by the television cameras. In fact, referees were punished for poor handling of matches after reviewing the weekend’s matches.

With the matches live on television and the apparent changes in the organisation, it was easy for investors to identify with the game. Soon, a title sponsor was secured, making it much easier for the organisers to run their operations seamlessly. The league had Glo as title sponsors, and Superstores as Broadcast right owners.

Each Club was given 10million from title rights, and 3 to 4million from TV rights. Depending on how many Televised games your clubs feature in… Lucozade Sports was one of the partners,  and each club had almost a hundred cartons per season. Marine lnsurance covered the medical aspects of the league. You could attend any of their  hospitals spread all over the country with little fee.

Capacity building was at the rooftop through coaching and refresher seminars for coaches, pre-season seminars and workshops for club managers, doctors, supporters, grounds men were all retrained by resource persons from all over the world.

Water sprinklers were distributed by the league to all clubs to maintain their playing pitches. These innovations to the league ensured that three of our representatives qualified for the quarter-finals stages of the CAF inter-club competitions.

 

 

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