clubs suffocate players with debts

The administration of the game of football certainly leaves much to be desired as most of those saddled with the responsibility are said to be people who lack the capacity to administer the game. Consequently, since the inception of professional football in the country in 1990, the league has suffered stunted growth.Concerted efforts to make […]

The administration of the game of football certainly leaves much to be desired as most of those saddled with the responsibility are said to be people who lack the capacity to administer the game. Consequently, since the inception of professional football in the country in 1990, the league has suffered stunted growth.
Concerted efforts to make the league attractive and competitive enough to attract sponsors and foreign players have failed to yield the desired result. For many, it is worrisome to note that some years back, Mr. Danny Jordan of South Africa was in Nigeria to understudy the country’s league. However, few years after, the South African League has continued to grow steadily while the Nigerian football league is still grappling with its teething problems.
The problems of Nigerian clubs are multiple but the most disturbing of them all its lack of professionalism especially in the area of contractual agreements. Unlike what is obtainable in other climes, almost all the clubs in the Nigerian Premier League are owned by state governments for political considerations. Consequently, most managers of the clubs are political appointees who run the clubs by the nose.
Huge allocations are made to the clubs every year, yet year in, year out players and officials of Nigerian clubs are promised bogus sign on fees and other allowances which are never paid. Those who appoint such unscrupulous managers hardly raise any eye-brows.
Thus, the current trend is for clubs to present mind boggling budgets to their governments every year but the appropriated funds usually develop wings. Consequently, while the managers keep smiling to the banks, the players and their officials are left to their fate.
In a document released to the media recently by the Secretary of the Association of Professional Footballers of Nigeria, APFON, Mr. Austin Popo, at least 15 Nigerian Premier League clubs owe their players and officials the sum of N888.803m. Interestingly, the Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, which has shown no seriousness in helping the players recover the debts stand to reap N88.580m which is ten per cent of the total sum the clubs are owing in the last two years.
According to the document made available to Shot!, Premier League clubs like Akwa-United FC of Uyo, Wikki Tourists FC of Bauchi, Dolphins FC of Port Harcourt, Warri Wolves FC and Rangers International FC of Enugu are the five most indebted clubs.
Based on the decided and undecided cumulative debt profile of the clubs as compiled by the association, Akwa-United leads with a total sum of N41.467m decided debts, and N75.467 million undecided debt, Wikki Tourists places second with a total sum of N46.870m from N31.040m decided and N15.830m undecided debts.
Dolphins, Warri Wolves and Rangers are owing N21.315 million and N21 million decided and undecided debt, N22.625m in the ratio of N16.625m and N6m and N41.050m in the ratio of N15.050m and N26m resolved and unresolved debt cases respectively.
The document further revealed that clubs like Kwara United FC owes total debt of N38.280m decided and undecided debts, Heartland FC with debt profile of N29.725m in the ratio of N10.725m and N19m decided and undecided cases.
Clubs like El-Kanemi Warriors is owing N29.324m, Enyimba FC with debt report of N48.390m, Bayelsa United owing N72.010m, Sharks FC with a total debt of N16.900m, Gombe United with total sum of N8.893m, Shooting Stars FC with debt report of N16.793 just as Pillars has the least debt burden of N920,000.
Indebtedness to players and officials is not a problem associated with the premier clubs only as
the document further revealed that seven National league clubs owe a decided total sum of N70.395m to players and officials, just as it owed the federation cumulative debt of N7.039m even as Edo Insurance FC leads the debt profile with N29.270m, Niger Tornadoes is trailing with N24.014m.
Others include defunct Ocean Boys with total debt of N12.061m, Prime FC with N3.318m, Unicem FC N932,500 and JUTH FC with the least debt of N800,000.
The above listed are not the only clubs that are guilty of players and officials enslavement as it is hard to find a football club in the Nigerian league that is guiltless as far as payment of sign on-fees, transfer fees, salaries and allowances to players and officials is concerned.
Obviously irked by these startling revelations, the minister of sports and chairman National Sports Commission, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi has since handed down a marching order to the NFF to ensure that the clubs pay up their debts immediately or be barred from participating in the leagues as from next season.
The minister in a meeting with the NFF in Abuja said “This has to stop. We cannot behave as if we live in a jungle. Every kobo owed the players must be paid. Players must have proper contracts”.
While reacting to the directive from the minister, the chairman of the League management committee, Nduka Irabor said machineries are being put in place to ensure that clubs pay sufficient attention to the welfare of their players, including implementing a minimum wage.
He said “I have pictures of the living condition of some of our footballers. It is shameful and makes mockery of the professional league. It is no wonder that our players keep going overseas to seek greener pastures”.
Veteran coach Kelechi Emetoele has since thrown his weight behind the move by the NSC to compel the clubs to pay up their debts. He told Shot! that it is a move in the right direction and if complied with, it would save the Nigerian league from untimely death.
The former Enyimba, Heartland and El-Kanemi Warriors coach said after leading Heartland to the semi-finals of the 2009 CAF Champions League, the club is still owing him N6m in sign-one fee, salaries and allowances.
“I am also a victim of this total disrespect for contractual agreement. After I took Heartland FC to the semi-finals of the 2009 CAF Champions League, they are owing me N6m. There is nothing I have not done to recover this debt.
“NFF and the NPL are the ones to enforce the rules and regulations of the league but they are most times found wanting. Club managers act arbitrarily and nothing is done to them. There is no single respect for contracts in the Nigerian league.
“This is one of the reasons behind the mass exodus of our talents to other leagues in Africa and Europe. Until and unless the administrators come hard on erring clubs in the most transparent manner, our league will remain professional only in name”, he said.
Emetoele said it is better for one to be promised nothing than to have his hopes raised and then dashed with all impunity.