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By Our Correspondent

The National Association of Nigeria Footballers, NANF, has described the purported broadcast deal signed between Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL managers, League Management Company, LMC and cable broadcast outfit, Next TV as a scam and a ‘one chance’ Bestchoicesports.com.ng can report

The union in a release sent to our
correspondent alleged that the LMC has ran the league aground with nothing to show for in the past four years.

The union wondered how the LMC could entre into a contract agreement with a Cable Television station that has no presence in Africa.

Going back to yesterday years, the union further lamented that the LMC which inherited the sum $25 million dollars from when the league was called Nigeria Premier League, NPL, called on club owners to rise up and stop being ‘a puppet’ in the hands of the LMC to continue to destroy the league.

It therefore called for a free and fair election to usher in transparent and purposeful leaders in the Club Owners Association of Nigeria in order to restored sanity in the league and grow the domestic football.

“We wish to state that seven months before the Covid-19 Pandemic, the league Management Company (LMC) launched a bogus NEXT Television sponsorship deal with so much fanfare and razzmatazz.

“In a frenzy their media cohorts went to town paying glowing tribute to their pay masters in a purported deal that will rake in hundreds of millions of United States Dollars.

“But how do you enter into a contract with a Cable Television station that has no presence in Africa?

“Before the LMC hijacked the NPFL, the NPL as it was then called had annual income of about $25m (million) in 2010/2011. This is inspite of the fact that MTN sponsorship deal was killed in broad daylight. A sponsorship that would have turned the fortune of Nigeria football around.

“Give or take, the LMC inherited a commercially viable league with annual income value in excess of $25m with an unlimited potential to grow which was handed over by late Chief Oyiuki Obaseki, Prince Davidson Owumi, Chief Rumson Baribote tenure.

“The LMC, a contraption that came to maim the league, in less than four years ran the league aground. SUPER SPORT, frustrated by how finances are being recklessly handled, walked away even in the currency of an ongoing contract.

“Unfortunately the club owners who are supposed to superintend over the LMC as a holding company of the league and hold them accountable to the clubs to ensure the clubs get a fair share of their income, under the aegis of the Club Owners Association of Nigeria, COAN has turned themselves to errand boys of the LMC and even an extension of their media unit.

“The appointed officials of the club owners are the ones advertising the LMC and singing their praises to high heavens, they have completely abadoned their primary responsibility which is to protect the interest of the clubs.

“No properly funded private club would accept the current status of the LMC and how the league is currently being managed. The LMC is having their way because the clubs are all being funded by government and the officials of the club owners are in alliance with the LMC to fritter the funds of the league away.

“All NPFL clubs have found themselves in what we refer in the local parlance as “ONE CHANCE” with the LMC and the only solution is for the clubs to go back to choosing their leaders by election.

“How much has the NPFL clubs earned from the LMC in the last three years? The LMC contraption was concocted as a drain pipe to defraud the NPFL clubs. The role of Mediterranean Sports Limited justifies this assertion,“ NANF President, Harrison Jalla, wrote.