A Clarion Call to Grow Nigeria Football League

A Clarion Call to Grow Nigeria Football League

By THECONSCIENCEng

Sports especially football continues to offer multiple values in Nigeria including entertainment, employment, career opportunity, youth development and rallying point for national unity and cohesion. 

For the most populous black nation, with over 200 million population and about 65 percent of youth population, football indeed holds huge prospects.

Available data says an estimated 80 million youth fans, active and latent watch foreign football with about 10,000 corporate brands jostling for their attention.

While many Nigerians especially youths crave international football actions due to the quality of play, scintillating commentaries, glamourous players, superb goal-scoring displays and interactive fans engagement, the same cannot be said of the followership and enthusiasm enjoyed by the local league back at home.

The skillful dribbles, superlative goals, amazing saves and precise kicks all make foreign football irresistible but the local league can step up. 

In fact, Nigerian football over the years has seen a decline from what it used to be three decades back but the optics is looking encouraging if calls and moves for revival and transformation by genuine actors are encouraged and sustained with required building blocks.

The potentials are truly enormous but the government needs to enhance enabling environment for football and sports industry generally to thrive and grow faster.Almost 30 years ago, the British government invested £200 million in the Premier League and as at May 2021 the EPL is worth over £18 billion.

The average value of a Premier League team now stands at $1.29 billion, according to Sportico, which estimates that the 20 clubs in English soccer’s top flight are worth more than $25 billion cumulatively.

Just recently, NBC won the Premier League TV Rights to broadcast exclusively all 380 games per season in the United States until the summer of 2028, in a six-year deal worth £1.9billion.

The deal is almost double the $1billion fee NBC paid for Premier League TV rights in 2015, meaning it is the biggest ever overseas TV deal in the history of the English top-flight league.

This points to the fact that Nigerian football if properly harnessed and managed could be one of the biggest revenue drives for the country as Gianni Infantino, FIFA President, rightly said, “Football is also business; when we can harness it properly, a lot of money can be made for the country through the game. Football is an overwhelming moment of beauty, spirit and pride and in the most populous country in Africa, that passion is palpable.”

This was during his visit to Lagos for the maiden edition of the AITEO-Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) Awards.Truly, the Nigerian local league is gradually picking up tempo and momentum with the support of few patriotic companies who believe in growing the Nigerian brand and are gradually injecting life into the league.

This has helped the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) to grow at its pace despite the huge support for the Premier league The Nigeria Professional Football League has created historic feats, chiefly with raising some home-grown champions who are becoming international stars including Ahmed Musa, David Akpeyi, and Junior Lokosa who are all doing well in their own rights and continue to wow global football fans. 

With the support of companies who thought it wise not to go with the mad rush but continues to support and invest in the Nigeria Professional Football League, the NPFL can attain an enviable status. Eunisell has remained one of the consistent supporters of the local football league in Nigeria.

The specialty chemicals and engineering productions solutions giant first became involved in Nigeria’s domestic premier league in 2015 and later entered the record books in the domestic league as the first club sponsor in Nigeria to achieve four consecutive seasons – as the Rivers United FC sponsor. The company continues to support the club and said it has great plans for fans in the new season.  

In 2018, it also initiated the Eunisell Boot Award which honours and rewards players with cash prizes at the end of the football season. Eunisell has continuously paid N200, 000 per goal scored for players and revved up excitement in the league.

Year after years, key goal scoring players in the Nigerian league have expressed delight at the move and desire to work harder, score more goals and clinch the annual Award. In 2020/21 season, two players were joint winners of the Eunisell Boot award with a cash prize of N7.6M for scoring 19 goals.

As the Nigeria Professional Football League prepares to resume on December 6 tentatively, Chika Ikenga, Eunisell Founder/Group Managing Director restated that Eunisell Boot seeks to instill greatness in players in the domestic top flight and celebrate their success story.

He stressed that the initiative is a confirmation of Eunisell’s commitment to the development and increased interest in Nigerian football.

“Too often we lose sight of the importance of the domestic league and its players, opting instead to follow the European and UK leagues for example.

 “What we forget is that a significant percentage of those talented players are Nigerians who started their careers at home in the local league – and even more remarkable, is the fact that our young stars rise to the top here and abroad without having had the benefit of local academies or sponsors in their formative years.

 “The prestigious trophy and value of the Eunisell Boots award will spur players into performing better. We believe and we are indeed proud to be associated with our home-grown stars,” he said.

Eunisell is Nigeria’s foremost specialty chemicals, fluids and energy productions solutions company which has operated for over 25 years in West Africa.