Before I sat down to write about our Premier League starting today, I had to make three calls just to confirm if it was really starting. I didn’t get any news contrary to the fact that they were set to start but in a system where the start off date has to change a million times before the real kick off I had to ask. But even as you read this, if the date changes at the last minute, just know that I tried to get the right information.
But whether we start today or next Saturday it hardly changes my view of the system. I don’t really know if there is any need repeating the fact the Nigerian league can be the best in Africa if we are honestly determined to make it so. We’ve got talents; we have the population; we are English speaking and quite a huge market. But despite all these we have seen others with less population, less talent and market determine which direction our players go. In the 1980s would any have believed that Nigerian professional footballers would someday struggle to get a place in Sudanese league? But that is the reality on ground now.
From facts available to us it is obvious that money is the motivation for those struggling to run the Nigerian league. The accounting system is so porous that a chairman can have his five companies running the system for all of us while he stands unchallenged as the paymaster. The way out for me is that the board takes a supervisory role while an independent chief executive and his assistant are employed to run the place on a day-to-day basis. In other climes countries host the Olympics and make profit because of the calibre of people selected to run the event. The countries whose leagues are thriving do not put a club owner who then sits at the secretariat on daily basis without any other visible means of livelihood.
The Super Eagles did well in South Africa by winning the Africa Nations Cup but it is amazing that some of the players that starred in Johannesburg and other cities in that region came off this same league. It is a well known fact that a good Nigerian league translates to better national teams. Well-paid and well-trained players in Nigeria can compete mentally and physically with those from any of the leagues abroad. What has kept the home-based professionals down is mainly the nature of the league they are operating and that is why the success of those from home in South Africa should never be allowed to go with the wind.
I had the opportunity to ask FIFA President Sepp Blatter if the world body could help Nigeria and Africa with technical experts to develop our women’s teams. We were in Germany for the 2011 Women’s World Cup and the difference in quality between the Super Falcons and their European counterparts was glaring. The answer I got from Blatter was to tell my federation to engineer our league very well. The same explanation goes for the men today.
I do pray that soon the state governments in Nigeria will accept the fact that they have no business owning all the football teams in Nigeria. Until private ownership of clubs is established in Nigeria proper financing and accounting may be difficult to implement. It is those who put in their hard-earned cash that would see that profit is made. Until then the free cash from government will continue to fill political appointees called club chairmen and their cronies.