Towards making Nigeria’s Football League competitive, profitable

A battered referee

Football, like all other sporting activities in modern times, is big business. It leverages the action of players on the pitch to entice buyers (fans and corporate society) of its products.

If well managed, a professional football league can become a billion-dollar business, which offers employment opportunities to millions of people directly and indirectly.

Such is the premium advanced societies pay to the administration of the game that they do everything possible to protect it from scavengers and undisciplined individuals, whose activities on and off the field, bring the game to disrepute.

Kano Pillars’ fans attacking officials after their match against Rangers International of Enugu at the Agege Stadium, Lagos

The LMC, headed by Alhaji Shehu Dikko, has a set of rules governing its operations. These laws dictate the roles of clubs, referees and other stakeholders in the organisation of matches.

The LMC, alongside its parent body, Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), also ensures the laws governing the competition are strictly adhered to by the participants and supervise penalties for defaulters of the set rules.

Kano Pillars’ fans attacking officials after their match against Rangers International of Enugu at the Agege Stadium, Lagos

It also helps to ensure the sanctity and credibility of the league, which employs millions of Nigerians directly and indirectly.

However, things have not been the way they should be, as many of those expected to enforce the rules are often active participants in events that bring the game to disrepute.

For many followers of the Nigerian Football Premier League (NPFL), the 2021/22 Season, which ends this weekend, will go down as one of the most controversial in terms of violence,