There are strong indications that the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) under the leadership of Mr Gbenga Elegbeleye has once again hit a cul de sac, a financial dead end that needs immediate attention if the 2024/25 league must continue.
According to reports from the NPFL office in Abuja, the league managers are at present insolvent and torn between the fiery inferno and taking a plunge into the dark ocean as it has run out of funds to continue with the 2024/25 league season.
An insider in the NPFL who spoke under anonymity revealed that the Board members have run back to their vomit begging Star Times to reconsider its withdrawal from the Nigerian league.
Star Times, a Chinese-owned satellite television in Nigeria and broadcast partner to the NPFL had unilaterally terminated its five-year deal worth over N1 billion yearly, just months after its signing in November 2023.
The report in the mill is that Board Chairman Elegbeleye and his team have approached Star Times with all manners of incentive to return including erecting pitch panels as many as they want in all the stadia that host the league matches.
The NPFL is making the move to convince Star Times to defray the balance of the sesson’s N1.5 billion so as to have funds to continue with the league.
The NPFL Chief Operating Officer, Prince Davidson Owumi has said recently that matches would soon be televised at the various stadia as they had ‘concluded arrangement with a television outfit.
But, the crush of the matter is that Star Times is also considering the broadcast right litigation saga which has been in court since 2013 between the LMC (NPFL) and the acclaimed right owners, Total Promotions Nigeria Limited.
Total Promotions had written several letters warning Start Times of the dire consequences of flouting Nigeria’s Laws affirming that the ownership of the broadcast right resides with Total Promotions whose unpaid N35 million loan kick-started the Nigerian league in 2002.
There are several court injunctions restraining the LMC/NPFL from interfering with the broadcast right.
According to a reliable source, the Chinese may not swallow the NPFL bait hook, line and sinker unless they resolve the catalogue of legal issues around football administration in the country, including Title and Broadcast rights.
It should be recalled that StarTimes’ abrupt exit was as a result of mismanagement and lack of accountability by the Elegbeleye board as no club amongst the 20 in the league has received a dime from the NPFL in the last two seasons aside the N10 million given to each club at the maiden edition which was abridged.
The malfeasance in the NPFL also resulted to Nigerian teams being humiliated in the first round of all continental competitions such as CAF Champions League and CAF Confederations Cup. Rangers International FC of Enugu and El-Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri have bitter stories to tell while they lament poor players’ welfare, and financial struggles.
In his reaction to NPFL begging Star Times to reconsider its withdrawal stance, Barrister Uche Onochie said until the NFF and NPFL realise that they have no legal base, there can never be progress in Nigeria’s football.
“NPFL will continue to scamper for money like the scavengers,” he said.
Uche added: “The NPFL is fighting a lost battle begging Star Times to continue to disobey Nigeria’s laws. Justice Donatus Okorowo’s in his famous judgment in a case between Dr Sam Jaja vs NFF, NPFL and others in 2014 said NFF is unknown to Nigerian law insisting that the NFA Act gave only the NFA the legal authority to run football in Nigeria. Not NFF.
“It is this same illegal NFF that birthed NPFL. So what we have here is a mountain of illegalities.
“The NFF and NPFL must first obey the laws as affirmed by the Supreme Court. They should stop dragging Star Times deeper into the abyss of illegalities.
“If Star Times, a foreign company in Nigeria knows what’s good for them, they will not touch NPFL bait with the longest pole.”
