Chairman, Nigeria Premier Football Federation (NPFL), Gbenga Elegbeleye, in this interview with TAOFEEK LAWAL in Abuja, spoke on the efforts being made to make the Nigerian top-flight attain greater heights, among other issues.
Excerpts:
What is your assessment of the 2024/25 NPFL season and what are your expectations this season?
We had a season that we feel we fulfilled our aspirations in terms of organisation, in terms of management and in terms of keeping to the calendar we desired to have. So, we were able to achieve that. In terms of officiating, too, nothing is perfect, but we believe we had a tremendous improvement on the part of the referees. Then again, our desire to align with the international leagues like Europe was achieved. Remember, we finished our Premier League same day as La Liga, EPL and all the rest. It was something that we planned to have, and we’re able to achieve that.
Again, in terms of venues and facilities, we had some improvement because we banned some teams from playing on their home grounds; because we resolved that the pitches, perhaps the stadium environment, are not good enough. Now we know some of them [the clubs] are working on it, and hopefully, there will be a massive improvement. The prize money for last season was N200 million, and we already paid it to Remo Stars for winning the League. Last season, it was N150 million; the season before it was N100 million. So, we improved on the previous season’s prize money by N50 million. Enyimba won N100 million, followed by Enugu Rangers, and we paid N150 million to them. And last season, won by Remo Stars, we promised N200 million as prize money, and we have paid.
Will there be an increase in prize money for this season?
It depends on if we have more sponsors; when we do, then we’ll increase the prize money.
There was an improvement in communication technology last season. Are we going to have the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) this term?
The referees belong to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). We are the end users. You listened to Dr [Mohammed] Sanusi, the General Secretary of the NFF, in his speech, saying we may introduce VAR this season and we’re looking forward to that. But I know that we have selected some referees to go for training in Morocco because that’s the venue selected and also to know the rudiments of operating the VAR machine.
Apart from VAR, what new things are we expecting this season?
We’ll improve on what we did last season. We talked about broadcasting. We had StarTimes. We may not be likely to go with StarTimes this time round. Most likely, we are working on another option. You guys should expect that.
Last season, a player was stabbed during a match involving Nasarawa United and Plateau United and the culprit was subsequently sentenced by a court. Is there any measure in place to guard against such a terrible incident?
Let me tell you some players too get involved in some antics to undermine the integrity of Nigerian football. When you said a player was stabbed, the neck is a delicate part of the body to stab anybody. The next home game, in fact, two days on, the guy still played. Can somebody that was stabbed in the neck play a match few days after such an injury? There’s a question of credibility in that kind of claim. That’s why we suspended the use of the stadium, cautioned Nasarawa United and at the end of the day, cautioned Plateau United as well.
They don’t make spurious claims that can’t be substantiated. Sometimes, you see people posting online what in actual reality does not reflect referees’ and match commissioners’ reports.
We have secret match assessors and they gave us their own reports that match officials don’t even know about. We’ll look at the three reports before we come to a conclusion. In terms of crises, we have devised a system where we deduct three points from any club. It’s better than asking the club to pay a fine. When you slap a referee, you beat up a referee, they invade pitches and you now asked them to pay N5 million or N1 million as fine, the next home match they would still do that. Any club can pay N1 million fine. But no club will want to lose three points. That’s why we’re doing that. I don’t regret it. Anybody can campaign against it. We are resolute about it. We stick to that rule.
What do you think is affecting our clubs on the continent?
My major concern now is not about the club winning the NPFL title. I’m very worried about clubs going to the continent and not doing well. And again, when you look at our scenario for now, you cannot blame these clubs. It takes a lot to buy quality players. Players are actually earning a living and they have families and projects to execute, they have aspirations to meet. Definitely, you expect them to increase pay and most of these clubs don’t have the money because we are still talking of sponsorship. We don’t have sponsors in the Premier League for now. GTI is not a sponsor.
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