NPFL Winner To Pocket N80m - Sports -

The winer of the 2014/2015 season of the Globacom-sponsored Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) will pocket a whopping N80m after proceedings have been concluded on the final day of the league, the chairman of the League Management Company (LMC), Mallam Shehu Dikko, has revealed. Dikko, who made the disclosure while speaking as a guest on yesterday’s edition of the African Independent Television’s morning show, Kakaaki, said: “The club that wins the league this season will earn as much as N80m in revenue share, merit award, bonuses and kind and even the relegated club will earn a minimum of N55m. There are incentives for away wins, draws, attracting crowds to the games and we also provide official match balls to the teams including kit bags for the players. More importantly, we are seeking pool sponsorship for all 20 clubs so their finances will improve and consequently, the welfare of players as well as drive the commercialisation of the clubs so as to make them attractive to investors” Also, Dikko disclosed that it was high time the government partakes in developing the stadia for the league, because after years of support and financial backing from the private sector, the LMC said it would love the government to participate more and help the game of football in the country grow in leaps and bounds. “Since the LMC came aboard, our funding has been sourced from commercial partnerships as is the practice globally. Though we appreciate the companies that have bought rights from us, we are still not where we should be financially. This explains our recent visit with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to the Nigeria Stock Exchange,” he disclosed. Also, he made a case for the game in the nation, citing successful examples around the world. “In the 1990’s, the government of Margareth Thatcher in the UK provided over £200m for the upgrading of stadia facilities across England and that contributed critically to what we have today as the best League in the world. More so, today, the UK Government is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the EPL, generating billions of pounds in taxes, football tourism, jobs and other socio-economic activities that are hinged on the EPL in the UK. We also would seek government’s intervention in this direction. We are not asking for funds to be handed to anyone but for government to directly fund the upgrade of existing grounds and provision of required broadcast equipment and facilities in the stadia,” he posited.