LMC reforms great, if diligently implemented – Lumumba

The dream of every good football player in Nigeria is to play professional football abroad. Does it mean there is nothing attractive in the domestic league?In addressing that, you must make a comparison that is relative; and the closest you can do is within Africa. If you look at other leagues of contemporary footballing nations […]

The dream of every good football player in Nigeria is to play professional football abroad. Does it mean there is nothing attractive in the domestic league?
In addressing that, you must make a comparison that is relative; and the closest you can do is within Africa. If you look at other leagues of contemporary footballing nations like Egypt, Tunisia, Cote d’voire and the others, you begin to wonder, why? But it goes back a long time. I recall that even Keshi who was one of the pioneer Nigerian players, left Nigeria and first of all played in the Ivorian league. That was a long time ago, in the 1980s. It tells you something. They’ve always had this strong league. At that time, I cannot say that their league was much better than ours, but they kept growing while our own was rather declining.
Now, there must be incentive within to keep the players. What takes our players abroad? Greener pastures. So, if we raise the level, if we get to the point where what they are getting here is enough to keep them here, they would not go out. The effects are heavy on the entirety of Nigerian football, some of which may not be obvious. We had to struggle to qualify for the World Cup; even the Africa Nations Cup that we won, by default, if you like.
Now, the strength of a national football structure is derived from the strength of its league. The CHAN team is a clear reflection of what the national league is today. I am glad about reforms that LMC has come up with. I had proposed the reforms long time ago when nobody thought of them. The frequent movements of players, short contracts in Nigerian league, affect maturity and development of the game.
With the new regulation, things should change, but in time past, hardly would a player last in one club more than one season. They move quickly to another club. It doesn’t help the player, it doesn’t help the coach, it doesn’t help the club, and it doesn’t help the development of the game in the country. But I have read now that the minimum contract for a player, giving a certain range of age and period of plying his trade in the league, is three years.
There is specification of minimum salary and other provisions. If these provisions can be implemented, Nigerian football will move to another level. In the old order, you will hear a player saying he has a sign-on fee of N10 million and on a monthly salary of N100,000; but in the entire year he would not get N1 million and he moves on. So, what is the motivation? Nothing. As it is, I have a lot of hope in the reforms. I only pray that they will enforce them.
Talking about organisation, why is it so difficult for at least one of the Nigerian Premier League clubs to lead by good example?
Without wanting to rubbish what some of them are doing, the process that brings up some of these club managers is faulty. Some of them have such little interest in the progress of the game that they are not innovatived. All they are concerned about is to impress their employers, usually governors of the states that own the teams, who mostly appointed the team managers for political reasons.
Virtually all the clubs in the premier league are government-owned, because private clubs, that’s another thing, cannot survive. That’s another issue entirely. When you have political appointees like those whose hearts are not in developing their teams and the game, you can’t make progress.
That’s why when you look at the expenditure pattern of a club that votes say N3 million for a match, you regard it as an outrageous sum when you see the pittance that goes to the players and the huge chunk that is lavished on frivolous items that are used to corrupt the system. With that kind of setting, what do you expect? But if the new regulation is made to be binding on all clubs, it will take us to a new progressive level.
Against this background, don’t you think most of the clubs would disband for their inability to meet up with the new reforms?
These clubs have the capacity. They are spending much money even now, only that the money is made to flow along the wrong routes. I’ve already said it. It’s corruption that pegs players’ earnings to the ridiculous levels that we know them today. Most of the clubs are government-owned. They have the capacity to honour the new regulations if they are made to honour it. What they budget every year to run the clubs is enough to accommodate it.
LMC has gone a step further to say, if you feel you cannot do it, you should withdraw, but if you say you can do it, you must give us a guarantee. They are protecting the interest of players and coaches and will not allow them to engage players or coaches and not pay them appropriately. They will withdraw from the money you have guaranteed and pay. Whether it is physical cash guarantee or bank guarantee, somehow, it is guaranteed, so the money will always be available. If it is a bank that gives you a guarantee, when they default, they would take the money from the bank.
You have commended the LMC’s new reforms but you seem to be sceptical about the implementation. Why is this so?
My skepticism is based on the knowledge I have of how most of these clubs operate. The LMC is insisting on starting the league; the clubs are saying they are not prepared or they do not have the money to pay the guarantee. Now, it is left for the LMC to insist on the clubs fulfilling their conditions. But if unfortunately, for who we are, pressure is brought to bear on the LMC and they now shift ground, you know what to expect. But it is a wonderful policy.
It is your opinion that privately-owned clubs can’t prosper in Nigeria; why do you think so?
Corruption has made competition unfair. How do you imagine a club budgeting more than N500 million a season playing alongside a club that is privately-owned and only promoting the game, because at this stage of the development of Nigerian football, clubs have not got to the point of breaking even, not to talk of making profit. So, if the competition is so unfair, a club budgeting N5 million to play a match against you who have no such capacity, and when you know that the bulk of the N5 million is going to corruption, for inducing bias officiating and things like that. The Nigerian league got to a point some years back when clubs decided who officiated their matches as referees, match commissioners, and it’s money they used. Instead of applying such resources to inspire players, to enhance players’ pay packages, they would choose to use it for, they call it technical; whatever that means. Some referees even demand for bribe from clubs. The system is so sophisticated! If you hear what happens, your hope for the system will sink. Maybe with the reforms good things would begin to happen. And the prevailing anomalies are the reason why stadiums are always empty. There are other reasons, such as availability of European league which you can watch in the comfort of your house where there is no harassment and the game is beautiful and you enjoy it, but beyond that we know in many other African countries which similarly watch European leagues on television, the natives still watch their own leagues. When you watch such leagues on TV you see that the terraces are always full. Why can’t we have the same thing in Nigeria? It’s because the results are pre-determined; before you get there you know what team would win.
What do you suggest if the situation is to be turned around?
De-investment by government is the thing to do. Governments should hand off because there shouldn’t be government-owned clubs: Sharks of Port Harcourt owned by Rivers State Government, Plateau United owned by Plateau State Government, Kano Pillars by Kano State Government; no. Why don’t we have UBA Football Club, MTN Football Club, Conoil, and things like that?
Who is stopping them?
The system.
How?
It has a lot to do with integrity issues. Yes, they can run the club as part of their social responsibility but their integrity is at stake. The companies want to be involved in things that would not drag their image into the mud. They can’t come now because the system is not clean enough. They would not want their name brought into disrepute because they are involved in football.
How do you clean the football house?
First of all, get government to de-invest. The NFF must take a bold step and say, for instance, that in the next five years all clubs must be privately owned, so that government would now look for partnership: we’ve been asked to de-invest’, because to de-invest doesn’t mean that you would not have any stake, but you can’t have majority shareholding. So, others will come in, so that the club is not run from the office of the governor who wants to patronise one of his political allies whether he is good for the job or not.