As the Glo Nigeria professional football League concluded the Week 3 of its fixtures after playing about 30 matches in the 2014/2015 season, soccer fans across the country have again commended the level of organization which they described as a New Nigeria Premiership.
According to reports monitored in all the League centres across the country, football fans and clubs expressed optimism that the local league would soon compete favourably with other organized leagues of the World and that very soon our fans would return to our stadium enmass and embrace our local league just as witnessed in the Nigeria Music industry revolution.
With the several innovations brought into the league so far by the new board of the LMC led by Mallam Shehu Dikko, the League would soon reclaim it’s position as the number one league in Africa.
So far with the introduction of the Referees Assessors, the fans base development strategy, the introduction of cash reward for every away win or draw, the over 100% increased sponsorship share award to each Club, the over 100% increase in cup worth awards as well as uniform match balls, bags and other incentives, the league is moving towards a higher level .
Speaking on the new face of the League under the new Leadership, General Manager of Heartland FC of Owerri who doubles as a director of the LMC, Prince Okey Ibe lauded the positive initiatives of the Mallam Dikko led board towards redefining the concept of league management for efficiency and service delivery.
Also an elated General Manager of newly promoted Kwara United FC, Alh. Mohd Haruna Maigidasama expressed satisfaction and support to the Dikko led board stressing that his management were excited to have received a cash reward of #.1m for pulling an away draw against Dolphin of PH in Week one.
So far, clubs like Enyimba, Kano Pillars and hosts of others who had hit over 5000 fans capacity in their stadia have benefited from the cash incentive packages of the fans base development strategy initiative of the new LMC.
It is on record that the new LMC leadership have put in place a special security measures to secure the fans and match officials, while it has also developed a security strategy which will soon guarantee live telecast of matches in all the league centers in both the North and south.
Reacting to the development, Ag. Secretary of the Club Owners, Alloy Chukwuemeka said the numerous achievements recorded by the new league board in the early stage was very much expected because the Leadership is a listening type with high sense of maturity in administration. He added that the new board have the full supports of the Club Owners which according to him comprised of 6 members from the Club owners.
He said ” yes we are happy with the innovations, we are happy with the new Leadership and as you can see the board is an all inclusive type with 6 members from the Club owners, and I strongly believe that they will succeed and the success have started rolling in” .
“This is unlike the past when we were decorating the container and leaving the content to decay, now the new board have started by building the content in order to make the league an attractive brand to investors and also by working closely with the Club owners”
“Of course what we witnessed before now was constant friction and conflicts between the LMC and the club owners, but the new Leadership have shown maturity in Administration and that was why it received the full endorsement from the Club Owners during the recent AGM held in Abuja”.
“Let me tell you, the Club Owners as presently constituted have a responsible and responsive leadership with seasoned football administrators who have also distinguished themselves in several fields of human endeavours, because we have Lawyers, Engineers, politicians, former Commissioners, local govt bosses etc, so we understand and know what is good for us and the League”
As you can see now the system is stable and we urge all stake holders to support it moving forward”.
Meanwhile the LMC have promised to activate more superb packages for the League when action resumes in week 4 after the general election with the assurance to work with the clubs to achieve the desired objectives of the League body.
Chairman of LMC, Mallam Shehu Dikko stated that the idea is to awaken Clubs to their responsibilities so as to ensure its sustainance in the long run, just as he charged clubs to maximize the usage of the several innovations put in place by the new LMC in promoting the league so as to attract more commercial values.
According to him “definitely all that we are doing is trying to get the participating clubs to be alive to their responsibilities as in the long term all this programs is to their benefits. Of course we also appreciate their limitations thus we are taking issues gradually”.
“Recall the saying by Alan Kay that “the best way to predict the future is to invent it”. In fact this is exactly what we are trying to do working with the clubs and providing the required incentives to the clubs to get them doing the right things”.
“Indeed, in the last three Match Days attendance have significantly increased compared to previous periods but more has to be done to improve and sustain the process. “
