Scrapping LMC, Huge Mistake, Sets Nigeria League Several Years Back, Says Bolaji Abdullahi

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Deji

Former Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, believes that Sunday Dare, current Minister of Sports' decision to scrap the League Management Company Limited, LMC, and replacing it with what appears to be an ad-hoc Interim Management Committee, IMC, is taking the Nigerian elite soccer league several years back.

He made this observation at his GRA residence in Ilorin on Sunday.

According to Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, decisions as critical as league management in the country should not be taken based on personal whims or differences with key personalities in LMC.

 

The minister obliquely refers to strong reports of differences between Chief Sunday Dare and Mallam Shehu Dikko, CEO of the now defunct League Management Company (LMC).  

According to him, also, the creation of the LMC while he held sway as the country's lead sports administrator was essentially to set the football league on the right path to professionalism like it is practised in more developed sporting climes.

"Sunday Dare, the minister is my friend but he got this one wrong. I don't know who persuaded him to say that LMC is illegal, because he had personal problems with some people in LMC," Abdullahi said.

Asked how football became more business oriented, the former minister stated that until the creation of LMC, the league was a money losing shambles.

It was also confirmed by a no less serious corporate entity like Globacom, which in an official missive described the Nigerian league at the time as "Worthless".

"People will not put their money in a place where they think it will not bring results. You cannot run sports or football on charity; its business and people are paying to get their names on the brand, its visibility.

"When your brand is becoming damaged by the fact that you are associated with a league with no reputation, they pull out.

"Can you imagine a brand like Coca cola or Globacom being associated with a league where a minister can save a club from going on relegation? "It damages the brand.

"When I took over as minister, Baribote was chairman of the league. Baribote said that they have had to get the clubs to pay the indemnities of the referees. I said 'What?' The clubs to pay the indeminities of referees?

Recalling how he set about setting the league on the right course, he narrated how he set up a committee to restructure the league.

Nduka Irabor would midwife the company. When that happened, MTN started calling, Glo started calling; Glo went to Dr Bukola Saraki asking him to talk to me.

 "I simply told Dr Saraki, 'Please tell Glo that if he is willing to pay N500 million, then the sponsorship title is his. All of them started chasing me. "At the end of the day, Glo paid N500 million.

"Then the broadcast right, which is where the money is, was another issue. A broadcast company was all over me; they followed me to London believing that they could reach a compromise with me.

 "I went to see the SuperSports people and asked if they were ready to do business with us; 'If you want to do business with us, there is no intermediary. You pay directly to LMC," narrated Mallam Abdullahi.

"Immediately, they said it was the kind of deal they wanted from Nigeria and they came to Abuja and signed a $4 million deal; we saw improvements then.

"We played matches at night. Clubs that were winning got bonuses. We were getting near the minimum wage for players. We were already setting a three year period where no state government or any government will own any club in Nigeria. It has to be privately owned.

"If a state wants to own a club, it must set up a private company that will own the club, we had all this protocol and we were making progress. Then I left. For me, this has always been our problem.

"We take one step forward and several backwards. I am telling you this because people need to know that we can develop the Nigeria Premier Football League.  It is not magic.

"We just have to be honest, and think of the country first before ourselves, have the courage to take difficult decisions regardless of who is involved.

"We would have gone far by now if we had stuck to the plans; imagine state governments still owning football clubs in 2023," he said.