By Raymond Nwaduba
Chairman of the Nigeria National League (NNL), George Aluo has highlighted some of the underground reforms going on in the league to ensure the domestic scene gets better.
Speaking during the Newstap/SWAN Five Star Award held recently in Lagos, Aluo said football is not like fast foods where you expect to get result almost immediately but admitted that a lot of work is being done to keep advancing the league on a daily basis.
“Look the NNL is going on very well which I want to thank the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau for the support he has given us. It’s that support that has seen us in three years rebrand the league from ground zero to the level of now attracting sponsors.
“It’s the only league in the country where you collect what we call locker room bonus for winning a game even before you step out of the dressing room. Twenty players and five technical officials get N56,000 each courtesy of Betpawa”, he noted.
He further explained that they now have new investors in Toptier Sports Management (TSM) who are taking their matches live, teams are winning on the road, referees indemnities jacked up with the referees themselves doing very well now.
“The officiating in the NNL is getting better by the day. Look at Inter Lagos going to Ikenne to hold Beyond Limits to a draw and Edel going to Abeokuta to beat Gateway. That’s the kind of results you see in the NNL. So we’re doing our best to make sure it’s the most important league not just in words but in the real sense of it”.
Aluo warned that the gains of the current reforms may not be immediate since football is not like fast foods where you bake bread in the morning and sell in the afternoon and you cash out.
“Football is not Mr. Biggs or Tetrazzini, it takes time. What we are doing now to keep our players at home is unprecedented. If players are motivated to play in the NNL, they won’t go to one obscure country to play.
“We want to keep our talents here and ensure that domestic football gets better. It’s not something that is because the league is running very well now, last year the NPFL ended the same day as the EPL, we are following our calendar, then you begin to get the results immediately. It takes time, he said”.
He assured that in the next couple of years domestic players will start getting back into the Super Eagles fold like was the case when Nigeria won the AFCON in 2013 with the likes of Sunday Mba, Godfrey Oboabona, Ejike Uzoenyi, Azubuike Egwueke etc all playing domestically.
