The chief operating officer of the Nationwide League One has responded by rebuffing the claims of an open letter written by Abdullahi German where the writer revealed that the NLO fees are on a high side for a grassroots club to fulfill.
Ogunowo not only rebuffed such irregularities in the letter, he also gave a detailed insight on the inside operations of the body and what the registration money stands for.
Ogunowo countered back in his response to the allegedly untrue establishments in the write up with the following;
1. The 150k registration fees covers (Medical examination for all players, Insurance and player registration). This fee will be reviewed up because that was the same fee charged in the last 7 years considering the inflation in Nigeria.
2. Besides that our registration is the only tamper proof in Nigeria, other leagues don’t have security features on their license.
3. The Yellow card and red card, yes the charges are there but NLO don’t even collect this money from them, if any club has paid for these cards in the last 3 seasons should come up with evidence of payment for such.
4. Protest fees are statutory and before you protest you must have your proof of evidence and if you win any protest your money will be returned to you.
4. Football business is profitable at the same time not cheap, and if we have to follow the regulation 70% of them won’t be registered.
5. They should go and read the definition of amateur football as defined by FIFA regulations.
He further stated that the writer should know that fines payment cannot be washed away, because it’s statutory.
“They should know that the N150k registration comprises (Players reg. 50k, Insurance for 30 players 90k and medical assessment for 30 players 60k) where else can they get this price if not the effort of NLO getting a good bargain.”
“They said yellow card and red card fines, should we allow players to just do as they like on the field without cautions? Besides let any club that has ever paid for such fines to present evidence of payment. On protest, if you have a genuine protest and win you get your refunds but when you submit a frivolous protest and lose, you don’t expect a refund it’s the regulation all over the world,” he concluded.
