Why we’re changing from amateur to Nationwide League- Mu’azu

We are working on a lot of things but the first one is to look at the name itself. The key factor behind the success of any organization is sponsorship. We are looking at funding and financial support and we feel that the name amateur itself is a limitation. By definition, amateur sounds downgrading. When […]

We are working on a lot of things but the first one is to look at the name itself. The key factor behind the success of any organization is sponsorship. We are looking at funding and financial support and we feel that the name amateur itself is a limitation. By definition, amateur sounds downgrading. When you say amateur people look at it as a childish activity. So if you want to attract sponsors, you want to attract followers, you want people to believe in what you are doing, what you are trying to do, You have to give it a better name. A name that is more befitting and attractive. We had proposed the Nigeria Youth League, the Nigerian Grassroots League and the Nigerian Nationwide League but internationally and more responsibly, the Nationwide League took the lead. In England, amateur league is called Nationwide League and that’s what we want to be called. We have to work by consent and approvals so we resolved and made that decision but we have decided to put it in writing and forwarded it to our mother body which is the Executive Committee of NFF for them to see it and favourably consider the proposed change of the name.

It appears the clubs in the amateur league are uncountable. How do you hope to sanitize the system?

You see it has been ten months since we won this election but our mandate was not given to us. As we waited, we tried to use that opportunity to make several consultations. We consulted experts and other relevant stakeholders who have Nigerian football at heart to guide us and put us through on how we can go about it. There are so many illegalities within the system. We would like to sanitize it but before we do that we must first of all try to adopt the international standards. We have a number of clubs registered and unregistered. First of all we have to look at the structure. It is our desire to ensure that each and every amateur club must have a standard structure as it is in Europe. It will be mandatory for the coaching crew and the players to be made known to the league board. Even the supporters club must be better organized and made known to us. And we promise that based on the sponsorship we are going to have, we are going to support the clubs in order to ensure that they are up to the required standard. We would expose the clubs to the modern technologies in football administration. By running an information technology driven secretariat, we would make communication with the clubs seamless. We hope to keep tab on all the clubs on regular basis.

You sound so confident but how do you hope to achieve all these without a befitting secretariat? How soon are you going to acquire a befitting secretariat?

In line with our resolutions at our inaugural meeting, apart from the changing of our name we also looked at this issue. Since we are talking about bringing people from different sectors to come and support the movement we are also thinking of a befitting secretariat. Even in the statues they said we are entitled to a befitting secretariat. However, at the moment, we are operating in a small office inside the NFF secretariat. All the National Amateur League staff operate in the same office. So we proposed that after changing the name, the person that is coming to invest his energy and resources and whatsoever must be comfortable with our environment. So we have been told to search for a befitting building for a secretariat within Abuja. So very soon we are going to have a befitting secretariat in line with international standards. We shall have a marketing, legal, competition, and IT departments. In addition, we would have a conference room, office of the Chairman and Secretary. Our IT department would ensure smooth flow of information without hectic journeys all over the country.

Officiating in the amateur league to say the least is never encouraging. Most times referees are accused of giving victory to the highest bidder. How do you hope to reverse this trend?

As it is the practice presently, amateur clubs pay the indemnities of referees and this is not acceptable. It is not supposed to be. A situation where by you came to my home to officiate my match and I pay you money for accommodation and every other thing, definitely, you must have sympathy for me. Now we want the match officials to have sympathy for the game and not the clubs. It is our desire to take over match officials indemnities to encourage free and fair officiating. With free and fair officiating, the league would be able to produce talented players for the Nigerian National League, the Nigeria Premier League and the national teams. It may interest you to know that the amateur league boasts of talents that can fit perfectly into the international market.

Is it true that your board is planning to stage its Super 8 competition? If yes, when and where is it going to hold?

Yes, we are going to stage the Super 8 competition but we would call it the Best of 8 competition for  the first division clubs that have gained promotion to the National League. We shall concentrate on division one only because we have at least 136 to 140 registered clubs in division one, two and three. It will be coming up by the grace of God after the CAF U-23 championship in Morocco. We want it to be at the end of the championship in Morocco because we want every relevant stakeholder to grace the event. We would use the opportunity to create more unity and harmony among football stakeholders.

Considering the fact that the board is just trying to stand on its feet, how do you hope to raise money to stage a hitch free competition and would give out trophies and cash prizes?

The most important requirement for the Best of 8 is to provide all the necessary logistics for the hosting particularly the availability of the clubs, accommodation, feeding and other logistics. The trophy and other prizes can come later depending on what we would have available on ground. But the main objective is to bring the clubs together and help them prepare for the new season. It is going to be the first in the history of the National Amateur League. In addition, foreign scouts would be on ground to take a look at the players on parade. We want to motivate and boost the morale of our amateur clubs. By interacting with the foreign scouts alone is something. The new board is ready to move the league forward and that’s all we need. We should be supported to move forward. These are the objectives but it depends on the availability of funds.