NNL: Plans in place to reignite interest, CEO says
By Emmanuel Afonne
Sajo Mohammed, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nigeria National League (NNL), says plans are now in place to make the second-tier league the best competition in the country.
Mohammed told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja that the league management for a start has, among other things, embarked on an enhanced publicity of its matches.
He said the move was to encourage the teeming Nigerian youths to reduce the attention they pay to foreign league competitions and transfer such to the Nigerian league.
“Many of these fans have never travelled to England, but you can see them talking about a club that is over there as if the club has been part of them for long. So, we need the publicity,” Mohammed said.
The NNL CEO said the plan for publicity would also attract followership and more sponsors to the league.
“I doubt if we can for now have some Nigerian youths who can name three Nigerian clubs. But they will mention all the foreign clubs for you.
“This makes it a massive job for us. But once the sponsors are on ground, we will demand from clubs the programme of their activities and the number of fans they have, because the publicity is important.
“There was a time I was South Africa and I saw how they organise their fan base. They even call for meetings of fans to educate them and also start early to mentor their children to know that this is the jersey of their club.
“From there the children will grow to know so much about the club.
“What we lack here is that while we were growing up, we were not telling our kids that clubs like Rangers, Shooting Stars, Bendel Insurance or Calabar Rovers are great clubs.
“When we were growing up, we were so fanatical about our clubs and there were no satellite cable to show matches, but now, we have to publicise our matches the way the Football Association (FA) and the Premier League did to get the English Premier League (EPL) to become a worldwide phenomenon,” Mohammed said.
He urged Nigerians, especially the corporate organisations, to support NNL’s development and the sports sector in general.
The NNL CEO said this would help to create jobs for the youths and prevent them from engaging in crime.
“We must support the youths by engaging them in sports activities. With that we will have less criminal activities.
“The majority of our population are youths and football will give employment to a lot of these youths. So, my appeal is for organisations, industries and well-to-do individuals to invest in football.
“I know that there is a reward for that,” he added. (NAN)
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