Ade Ojeikere
What a week. Hectic? Yes it was despite the lockdown occasioned by the Corona virus pandemic. Fortunately, my job as a journalist permits my movement to work and back home. Mention must be made of the security operatives who have been very polite.
They have done the job of policing in the routes that I use. Thank God something good can come from our security operatives.
I don’t intend to discuss the damage the Corona virus has done in the world. I would rather join the multitude praying for a quick discovery of vaccines to cure the disease.
Last Saturday, I purposely put my phones on silence to avoid calls because of the piece I did on this page. I knew I had roughened feathers.
I also knew that the critics’ knives would be drawn. But that wasn’t the reason for writing the column. It was to remind our league organisers, not to insult our sensibilities with such fantasies as watching the domestic league on telephone, despite all the debates surrounding the return of the English game, which bother on the losses clubs would incur from television rights on English Premier League (EPL) games, if the season ends abruptly.
With 92 games left for the season to end, EPL chieftains are toying with a lot of possibilities such that the competition would end without any overlap into the new season. The message underscores the importance of terrestrial rights.
According to a Daily Mail report Monday: ‘’On May 7, the government is set to hold its next review of the current lockdown restrictions. If games are to go ahead, then the Premier League will have to ensure that measures are in place to prevent fans from gathering outside stadiums.
The Premier League are hopeful that they will be given approval from the government to play the games, which they feel would help to boost the mood of the nation.’’
What an interesting perspective to the Corona virus – matches to be played to help boost the mood of the nation. Brilliant. It means the game belongs to the people. Without the people, the games won’t attract the followership which clubs enjoy.
This movement of people towards the clubs fill their stadia and in turn become huge revenues bases for them to buy players of their choices.
Sports is business, meant to be administered by those who can think, not cronies of governors. That is the way things are here. Hence the quagmire in our sports administration.
‘’In addition, players will have to be tested for Corona virus and venues for the games will have to be decided, with England’s training base of St George’s Park one possible option.’’
EPL chieftains understand the importance of the government in arriving at a final decision. Yet, they have proposed ideas which would meet all the fears expressed by all the sides in the dialogue.
It is true that the French have cancelled their league seasons. But the English game is driven by weighty sponsorship packages signed over the years, with the sponsors to make demands on infringements on their contracts with the EPL.
The correlation between the EPL chiefs and government rests with the volume of taxes which increase the country’s revenue, beginning with taxes of players’ coaches, and ancillary staff’s wages, television rights, merchandising, and other marketing platforms of the EPL which make it one of the most lucrative businesses in modern history.
Government has the discretion to rule like the French minister did on Monday. But, the backlash would be unimaginable, beginning with the next transfer window.
Conversely, it took the Nigerian government’s intervention for our domestic league organisers to tell us their plans, many of which are laughable.
They need to study the daily reports from our leagues troubled by the Corona virus pandemic to know how to re-direct their plans to be in sync with others.
The EPL eggheads have visualised how the Barclays English Premier League would be played as reported by the Daily Mail during the week.
‘’ A minimum of 300 people will be needed for a Premier League fixture to take place behind closed doors. As England’s top flight looks for safe ways to resume in the coming weeks amid the Covid-19 pandemic, an official estimate has calculated how many will need to be inside each ground on match-day.
‘’This includes 40 players, 32 coaching and medical staff from the two teams, 12 match officials, between six and eight doctors and medical personnel, three Premier League officials and 130 or more media personnel.
‘’Of that figure, 210 have been exactly accounted for, according to The Daily Telegraph, though the precise numbers of club directors, media, security, stewards, ground staff and scoreboard operators have yet to be worked out.
‘’The additional 90-100 in attendance is based on estimates made in Germany, where the Bundesliga could resume on May 9 if given the green light by health authorities.’’
Two striking things have come out of the pronouncements in the other leagues, which show that the media are adequately briefed unlike ours where until is revealed, except such statements put the organisers on the spot.
Besides, references are made to what others have said by way of comparison. Why not? You copy ideas which you cherish instead of celebrating mediocrity like we do here. Sadly so.
The organisers should tell us how much the game is worth; also how much the domestic league is worth. They should tell us how much they realise from inter and intra club transfers? They should disclose what comes into their coffers as percentages on stadia gate-takings.
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Will it be asking for too much to disclose what they have generated as revenue from the different marketing initiatives that have brought into their coffers?
The time to transform the leagues is now. They need to shop for sponsors for the league by showcasing the marketing windows the corporate world can key into while stating the merits of keying into them.
No firm would invest in a business without bountiful returns that would raise the adrenalin of stakeholders at end of the year.
It is always saddening watching the domestic league matches with the inner circumference panels empty unlike in the European leagues where such platforms are used for different things with sponsors enjoying quality time as their products and services are advertised.
Viewers and those inside the stadia get to read about the club’s gate-takings for the day and the number of those who watch the games from the scroll messages on the inner perimeter platforms.
Other vital information about the clubs including their next matches can be tracked while also watching the games since the messages are repeated in the course of 90 minutes.
Rather than delude themselves with the fact that they held virtual calls with members, the organisers should tell us why the league venues’ pitches are still synthetic? Don’t they know the damage they expose the players to weekly, playing on plastic pitches with the wrong pair of boots? I hope people won’t be shocked in future when many of them become orthopaedic patients due to injuries on their knees and ankles.
It is because of this clubs in Europe go the extra miles to nurture their playing pitches and also re-grass those balding as a result of constant use.
This is to achieve players ‘optimal performance. Non-match-day visitors to Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, for example, would always see gadgets on the main playing pitch used to nurture the grasses and keep them lush.
Globally, pitches are made of lush green grasses not what we have here. Is anyone surprised that our players struggle to compete with other African nations in the continental competitions? Our league administrators should be ashamed when North African force our encounters with them here to be played on grass pitches, since they know the laws of the game and insists on its application?
Does it not occur to our administrators the importance of functional electronic scoreboards in all match venues? What would it cost us to persuade teams to install VAR at league venues? Is it forbidden to start this VAR culture in Nigeria, even if it means installing them in select venues as starters?
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