NPFL: To be or not to be?
On
Nigerian Professional Football League
By Jacob Ajom
The Nigerian Professional Football League officially began in 1990, following the full consideration and implementation of the report of the Nathaniel Idowu-led Committee. The report includes, among other things, a business-oriented approach to the running of professional football in Nigeria.
This was supposed to reflect in the manner clubs are run, players’ remuneration and the league. Clubs were given a five-year grace to build their own stadiums; clubs were supposed to go public and sell shares in the capital market; the government was supposed to ease its stranglehold on the country’s football mechanism, while club managers and managements were tasked with how to initiate programmes that can generate enough revenue for clubs and break away from being too dependent on government funding.