President of Nigeria Football Federation Amaju Pinnick has suggested that for the Nigeria Professional Football League to return to glorious days, private ownership of football clubs must be encouraged.
Nineteen of the twenty clubs presently competing in the NPFL are government owned clubs, with only FC Ifeanyi Ubah the only private team in the top flight , although Remo Stars could join pending on the result of the Super eight playoff.
Pinnick said Nigeria must have a team with rich history, that will participate in the Champions League consistently and he believes all these can be achieved with corporate bodies coming into football with their funds.
“We don’t just want to play football for the social reason of uniting Nigeria, but we are coming out with a policy very soon, which I will submit to the reforms committee, where all clubs must have a certain percentage of private ownership.
Twenty percent can go to the government because of the stadia that they own, which can be converted as equity. We need clubs that will have history. That is the only time that you will see Nigerian clubs playing in the final of the CAF Champions League.
“We want the football clubs to be owned privately Let them bring their friends and companies to manage and run this club as a proper business. How much does it cost to run a club in Nigeria? It is about developing strategies of how to raise funds to themselves.”
Pinnick added that one of the major objectives of the NFF is to make football mainstay in the Nigerian economy, sighting UK as a clear example.
“Part of what we are coming to do in our second tenure is to build a football economy. Look at the sports eco-system of Nigeria; it’s quite ambitious, making football an integral part of the Nigerian economy.
We need to do that, because football is not just about the social factor, it is a massive business. It gives the UK government 3.3 billion pounds, every year.”
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
