678 total views,  3 views today

By Ebube Dikke

A group of Ex- Footballers from the premier University of Ibadan, UI has cautioned the proponents of the Private Investors League to thread with caution in the pursuit of their plan to float a parallel football league in  the country, Bestchoicesports.com.ng reports

Discussing the issue on their online platform, the group, many of whom represented the country at various levels said although the importance of having private investors in the Nigerian Football League cannot be over emphasized, considering the role the private sector is playing in major leagues across the world, there was nonetheless, a need for caution. According to the ex-footballers, “US private investors are involved in owning and managing  some of the biggest football clubs in the world including Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool in England while, Arab investors run Manchester City, and a Russian investor owns Chelsea FC”.

They said that having such investors would attract more foreign players into Nigerian clubs, enhance the quality of the league, the training facilities and the stadiums, improve welfare packages for players and above all, ensure massive projection of the Nigerian league to the world.

Furthermore, the ex-footballers, most of whom are now accomplished executives in different fields across the world, believed that the idea of floating a separate league in the country, would compound the already bad situation that the country’s football is facing.

“So far, it appears only India operates a parallel league and this may not be unconnected with their population. Again, that begs the question of India’s pedigree in global football”, they said.

“No serious country has two leagues. It just won’t work here in Nigeria. If we are copying the European leagues who are obviously the best in the business and they don’t have two leagues, so where are we taking our own from!?” they fumed.

“Instead of creating further problems in an already volatile industry”, they advised “the Private Investors to seek audience with the Nigerian Football Federation, League Management Company, and  the Ministry of Youth and Sports  to deliberate on how the league should be run to make it one of the best in the world”.

The group further advised the private investors to support the league organizers to access adequate funds to put the League in proper shape, while putting measures in place to monitor the funds invested in the league, in line with international best practices.