As 2018/2019 Nigeria National League kicks off this Wednesday, 10th of April, 2019, sports loving Nigerians appear to be more apprehensive about the quality of games to be expected this coming season considering the hues and cries experienced in the past seasons.
Ordinarily, one would have expected an improvement on the previous this coming season but the scenario of broad day violence recorded mostly in some venues was not too good for the eyes to see. The experience of some journalists last season where touts were allowed into the technical area to terrorise some match officials appeared not to be different from those hurricane recorded three seasons ago.
The much talked about issues that attract public discourse this season require genuine response from the stakeholders. These are script officiating, horrible security architecture, lack of sponsorship, referees indemnities, punitive measures for erring clubs and officials among others.
I think NPFL this season have done pretty well in terms of officiating as Match Day 14 proved it beyond rhetorics. Take for instance, Insurance on Sunday went to Draw Enyimba in Aba while Delta Force picked a point in Yobe and Heartland got a vital point on the road in Jos, and 22 away wins recorded this season in elite league.
Punitive measures is another standard set by LMC which the board of NNL has not fared well. Katsina United, Insurance, Plateau and Remo Stars have at one time or the other received heavy hammers from the league company and thus put other teams in check
Security architecture at the stadia is another source of concern. Truth be told, security arrangements in NNL last season was not good enough for the media reportage. Ideally, 50 police men, 20 Civil defence and local security arrangements are expected to be on ground before a ball is kicked. Alas, hadly would you see 20 police men on the field not to talk of waiting for the away teams and match officials to exit the stadium before the security men leave. Should we expect anything different this season? Time will tell.
Sponsorship is a no go area in this kind of circumstances. Can the reader of this piece genuinely put his money in this league? The question now is that what fate awaits the referees this season? Is NFF ready to inherit and bear this brunt? What about the outstanding due to these arbiters? Has it been cleared? What is the leadership of the NFF doing to rescue the board of NNL in terms of financing and backlog of indemnities
The questions we ask the board of the Most Important League as the league commencing this Wednesday is that should Nigerians be expecting a better league this season or we continue to progress in our usual script league?
How long will it take NNL to ensure a well packaged league for a mileage for potential sponsors?
