Credit: Nigeria Today
The League Management Company has spent the last four years trying to restructure the NPFL, and instil a culture of professionalism. Partnerships are being forged, old laws are being enforced, new laws are being made, and more money is shared by the clubs; yet, the culture of self-centeredness and desire for personal aggrandisement – and this involves everyone connected with the League – means our league remains the loser…
The players – These are the easiest to decipher of all the groups associated with the League.
They are playing for money, nothing else, and you can’t blame them for that.
However, the ease with which they discard the contracts they gleefully sign with teams in the NPFL, says something about their commitment to the clubs, and the League that gave them a chance to lay a foundation for the future.
Maybe if these players think more about the clubs and the league, they would not tear up contracts and jump ship so easily.
But then again, when one thinks of the Team owners, one might be inclined to forgive the players.
Team owners always have personal agendas: from state governors to private owners, to the individuals the governor-owners give executive powers to act as team owners.
The teams and by extension the players, are either political tools or meal tickets.
There is no consideration for the League and its betterment; they see the League as just a conduit for their (agendas).
Then, there are the Administrators. The guys who run the day-to-day affairs of the teams.
They are always angling for short term gains: that’s why clubs want to win at all costs even though we all know it hurts the league; wins means bigger budgets, a lot more wins means the chance to represent the country at Continental level, which means far, far bigger budgets.
And the bigger the budget, the more that can be siphoned off the top. They fail to realise that when the League is better run, they can make more money. But that will take time.
The win-at-all-costs mentality leads to the corruption of Match officials. They ruin fans appetite with blatantly wrong calls after getting paid, damning it all.
The LMC keeps weeding them out as quickly as they’re caught, but the lure of easy money means there is still work to be done.
Of course, there are some Journalists who deliberately and systematically ingrain themselves with club owners.
A high percentage of journalists don’t care about the League. Forget the rhetoric. They get paid to trumpet whatever agenda their ‘owner’ wants to fly.
They skew reports, and attack just about anyone they perceive as an enemy of whatever agenda they’re running.
It doesn’t matter a jot to them whether the League is adversely affected or not. As long as they get paid.
Then, there are officials who will publicly rubbish the lads playing in the NPFL: it is more profitable (for them) to import players for the national team.
And maybe the transfer rules remain chaotic (despite FIFA guidelines) because certain officials or their friends are illegal player agents causing the chaos.
It is all about PERSONAL INTERESTS. And until we collectively decide that the growth of our League is worth fighting for, we will keep barking at the moon.
Written by Oguntuyi, Akinbode [ Booday 10]
