Glo Premier League clubs have been asked to take advantage of the Elite Players Scheme introduced by the LMC since 2014 season to inject Nigerian players with specified national team caps as part of strategies to rekindle greater following for the domestic league as well as attract sponsors to the clubs.
While speaking at a recent interactive session with Sports Editors, the Chairman of the League Management Company (LMC) and NFF Vice President, Mallam Shehu Dikko noted that a number of incentives have been put in place to not only encourage the clubs but also to assist them implement ideas to bring back the fans to the games and also attract credible sponsors to the clubs.
The LMC Chairman revealed that so far the scheme yielded results when Sani Kaita joined Enyimba last season as his presence in Port Harcourt drew a large turnout in the match against Sharks which ordinarily hardly attracts more than a thousand. Fans were also showing up at other venues Enyimba travelled to asking to meet Kaita.
He enumerated other incentives to include bonuses to clubs that succeed in getting more than five thousand to their home games, performance bonuses to clubs to win or draw away games aimed at assuring fans of the credibility and integrity of matches as well as financial support to clubs to maintain infrastructure mainly the pitches, dressing room and public amenities at their grounds.
He identified instability in club administration as one of the banes of the league as the club managers focus more on winning games to guarantee their tenure rather than focusing on developmental programmes due largely to no fault of theirs.
“ I will support a tenured and or rather a contract appointment for our club administrators by their respective state government owners with defined tenure and deliverables because we have seen the clubs simply focusing on how to win matches and trophies to make their employers happy rather than seeking a wholesome approach to developing their clubs. Most club chairmen are unnecessarily distracted from paying the required attention to development programs such as running an academy and professional training and welfare of the teams as they are always under pressure to win matches and give the government a public relations leverage even when the Government have not its obligations to the Club by way of releasing funds timely. Furthermore they have other people always working to get them out of office and this again forces them to spend time covering their flanks rather than putting energy towards the club development”, lamented Dikko.
“Thus I will always advocate and will push for a proper contract between the Government and or the Private Club owner with the Club chairmen/administrators with a specified tenure, deliverables and compensation scheme as done internationally so a stable environment will be created for the chairmen to focus on their core jobs of professionally managing the development of the clubs”, Dikko further stated.
He however believes these would be a thing of the past when government club owners agree to divest and open club ownership to the communities and individual investors and assured that the LMC will at all times explore opportunities that will increase the revenue base of the League and the clubs.
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