In developed countries, sport is business because deliberate attempts are made to create a product which is packaged in such a way to make it a brand. It is only when it is a brand that connects with the people that the blue-chip companies seek to identify their products and services with it. However, such a brand shouldn’t be linked with any unit that thrives in controversies and sharp practices. Otherwise the big players would look elsewhere for less controversial brands.
In Nigeria, our reliance on government sponsorship for sports has blinded our administrators to the need for creating business activities around the existing 29 sports. All sports are business concerns in countries that understand how each entity can create employment, mobilise the citizenry and improve health. Our administrators muddle up the finer details of creating brands at critical moments. A case in point is the ‘concluded’ 2016/2017 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).
Our sports administrators hardly learn from their mistakes because there are no structures to plug loopholes of the previous season. Otherwise, how would they present Plateau United of Jos with its trophy as the Nigeria Premier League champions for the 2016/2017 season yet three clubs (Wikki Tourists of Bauchi, Gombe United of Gombe and Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC)) are still waiting to know which one of them will be demoted? Is this not a joke?
Battles involving teams climax any league season, with the organisers focusing their attention on the six teams at the top and the last six teams at the lower rung of the ladder, with five matches to go.
In fact, on the last day of the league, matches involving the top four are closely monitored, especially if it is a tight race. In the case of the NPFL, Plateau United and MFM FC of Lagos stood a chance of winning the title. The difference was that Plateau had its last game at home against Enugu Rangers while MFM had a difficult game against El-Kanemi FC in Maiduguri. It would have been easy to wave off MFM. But it is a team that has remarkable records away from home.
Pundits felt that MFM should be taken seriously, considering the fact that the games involving Plateau and the Lagos sides would be shown live on television. These purists reasoned that Rangers, incidentally the defending champions, could come up with their Spartan fighting spirit to shock the Jos side at home. Such is the dynamic nature of the beautiful game. For the records, Plateau beat Rangers 2-0. El-Kanemi stopped MFM’s away record with a 2-1 victory over the Olukoya Boys.
The League Management Company (LMC) did very well in covering the two matches to decide the winners on television. But the LMC chiefs ought to have ensured that the relegation dog fight was closely monitored. If they had given the games involving these relegation battlers some serious thoughts, officials of 3SC won’t be disturbing the media with hopeless analysis that it could escape relegation if Gombe beat Wikki in Gombe. The game in Gombe ended in a fiasco with part of the stadium premises burnt by irate fans who came to the stadium after rumours of a sellout in favour of Wikki. Ordinarily, a game involving Gombe and Wikki Tourists of Bauchi should be a stroll in the park for the team that needs assistance. Gombe used to be part of Bauchi, which is Wikki’s home. Historically, the rivalry between Gombe and Wikki is so fierce. It would please already relegated Gombe FC’s fans to drag Wikki down than to be beaten by their worst enemy.
I’m miffed by the stoic silence of the organisers. LMC’s COO comes from Gombe. He knows the fierce rivalry between both teams. This writer is forced to ask what mechanisms the league body has been adopted to forestall this imminent fiasco. LMC’s COO is adept in the administration of the league. My fear is that he may have chosen to be neutral in order not to be accused of being partial.
In other climes, the LMC COO would have been present in Gombe to see things for himself. I won’t blame the COO because Nigeria is a different kettle of fish. As it is, the game has been taken to the political realm, leaving either 3SC or Wikki condemned to relegation.
It should be an easy verdict; awarding the three points and three goals should go to Wikki, who were leading 1-0 until the game became violent. But the LMC has ruled against awarding boardroom points. Stalemated matches are usually replayed at the same stadium under closed doors, with the game continuing from when it was stalemated.
Will LMC still stick to its rules by continuing the game in Gombe? Will the referees who may still be nursing injuries have the courage to handle the game again? Will Wikki not insist that the game is continued outside Gombe, given what they experienced in the stalemated game? This kind of show of shame won’t encourage the business community to identify with the domestic league. It explains why our local league players cannot compete with their foreign counterparts.
Sadly, the league has not been able to get a credible title sponsor since telecommunication giants, Globacom ended its sponsorship package. The best way to get the corporate world to sponsor the league is for the matches to be shown live. That way, sponsors can either create a window which they hope to support or find the cash the LMC’s marketing packages, which will improve on the weekly matches.
Our administrators blame the media for highlighting the flaws of establishments, forgetting that there isn’t another way to report the truth. How can anyone distort the fact that the result of the match between Wikki and Gombe hasn’t been decided, four days after it was played? For instance, the controversial incident involving Liverpool’s striker Sadio Mane and Manchester City has been decided, yet the Liverpool game held earlier than the Wikki game.
With the Liverpool game shown live, it was easy for pundits to critically analyse every detail of the crunchy tackle in slow motion to see if Mane’s tackle was deliberate or an accident. It didn’t shock Barclays English Premier League followers that Mane’s three-match ban was upheld after Liverpool’s management appealed for a reduction of the matches that Mane would miss. The organisers stood by the referee’s decision because they had done their homework. The game was played last Saturday. A decision was taken the following Tuesday, less than 72 hours after it was played. No discussions. All the parties agreed on the outcome.
LMC’s N7 million sanction on Gombe may look weighty but it doesn’t solve the problem caused by the urchins. Continuing the game in Abuja would have been avoided if the organsiers had taken adequate precautionary measures before the game. What if Gombe wins the game in Abuja? Would it not be a subtle way of asking clubs to take the laws into their hands if they smell foul play?
The LMC has improved the domestic league. There is the urgent need to fix security at match venues before, during and after matches. The LMC must identify high-risk matches and send credible officials to such games, which must be shown live. The LMC must get the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to send a special squad to match venues with instructions to arrest people with unsportsmanlike conduct, which would have been captured by the television crew inside the stadium. Those arrested must be investigated and prosecuted. These urchins are no spirits. We know them but we have been tolerating their nuisance weekly.
Perhaps, this is the time to ask the Inspector General of Police whose duty it is to ensure security in any gathering. How come the police are disinterested in securing our match venues, knowing that football is an emotional game where some criminals can take the law into their hands?
Dear Inspector General of Police, thugs, roughnecks, and urchins storm the stadium with raised chests, warning that they are around and not scared to repeat the mayhem. This impunity won’t occur if security operatives whisk them away for punishment. Others will behave properly. The IGP should, as a matter of urgency, ask Police Commands in the states where matches are played to storm the venues before a referee is killed simply because some fans are unhappy with a decision. Teams which suffer from such unruly behaviour return home to await their hosts in the second leg game.
We shouldn’t wait until deaths are recorded in the stadia before taking action. Match commissioners must insist on having 80 policemen to man security. The LMC must get the Commissioners of Police in the states where games are held to post their men to the stadia. The few security operatives seen in most stadia are supporters of clubs. You see them where referees are molested but no arrests are made. Where arrests are made, eminent personalities ensure that there is no prosecution in the law courts.
The LMC has taken many of these urchins to court, with few let off the hook or given a slap on the wrist. But with the magnitude of injuries inflicted on referees, the three fans caught in Bauchi should be allowed to go through the court process. The media must follow this case to its logical conclusion.
The backlash from the fans’ misdemeanours explains why the league is struggling to have a sponsor. Dikko et al have done well to reinvent the workings of the league. But these criminals’ invasion of match venues is a big smear on the game. It must stop.
