Leagues around the world have certain standards that do make them Standout amongst others, ranging from good Stadia, good officiating, crowds/attendance, broadcast, renumeration and quality of play amongst others.
The Nigeria Professional Football league under the management of of League Management Company (LMC) have being in a disheartening State for quite sometime now, though the LMC, is doing it’s very best to improve the league.
Photo: Kwara United(Facebook page)
Reforms such as pay pack for scoring an away goal, scoring the best goal of the week and so on and so forth, have gone a long way to improve the league but the old problem of infrastructure, broadcast, crowd and attack by opposition fans still lingers. Some of the key issues are highlighted below.
1. Players happy to get transfer away from the NPFL
Just recently, as reported by Brilla, former MFM FC hotshot, Stephen Odey, claims he doesn’t regret losing the golden boot as he prioritises a move away from the country over the award.
The player joined FC Zurich in Switzerland in the summer of 2017, and went to impress such that Belgian Giants Genk came calling.
“However I have moved on with life as my transfer to FC Zurich of Switzerland and now Genk have really paid off as it has made me a better player,” he said.
Photo: Brilla.net
He eventually joined them in the summer of 2019 and featuring in the UEFA Champions League and scoring on his debut as a late substitute against Liverpool FC.
When players start prioritising moves away from domestic leagues to other leagues that tells you alot is not going in the right direction.
2. Crowd troubles in the League
Many atimes, as a fan or player, one becomes scared of attending games away from your home as crowd troubles have being the order of the day in recent times.
As recently as 12, March 2020, Today.ng, reported two cases of crowd troubles that were fined by the LMC. One of which, fine was handed out to NPFL side Adamawa United, for crowd violence.
The other side to be fined by the LMC, for a similar offence is Bauchi State based side Wikki Tourist. This often comes as a result of poor officiating that probably infuriates the fans or poor sensitization of fans, making them to understand that results in football are to accepted no matter the outcome.
Hopefully, the NPFL will improve when the Pandemic is all over. We all have missed the Local league action as well as the European Competitions. Stay safe.
