Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Hon. Sunday Dare has stated that the domestic league, Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL, is the fulcrum that would give vitality to Nigerian football, and says the league’s stakeholders must do the needful to make it attractive.
In a chat in Abuja, the minister made reference to the working model of a robust league as a critical component of football vitality in any country, but is nonexistent in the NPFL.
Sunday Dare
Dare emphasized the need for enforcing club licensing, governance and welfare of players as demands needed for the growth of NPFL.
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“We have good laws governing the league but we need to be firm on their enforcement. Look at what Samuel Eto’o is doing at Cameroon. We have these laws, we need to enforce them,” the sports minister said.
“If we must take bank guarantees to ensure players payment are secured, then we should do that. We know that State Governments are the owners of these clubs, but there must be ways out of these.”
Dare added: “In my speech at the NFF AGM in 2019, I mentioned that there is no league without a proper calendar. This is needed to gain the trust of investors, consistency is key, taking a cue from the EPL and others. Organizations also have budget cycles and this would help them plan.”
Dare said that before the start of the next NPFL season, there would be a roundtable with all League stakeholders to find ways around issues holding down the league, through engagements and implementation of tough decisions to help the league grow.
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