Frankie Omokhua, Enugu
Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) Chief Operating Officer (COO), Davidson Owumi, has blamed the urge of a lot of domestic players to continue their football career in foreign lands on Nigeria’s poor economic status and devaluation of the Naira.
The former Rangers International FC General Manager/Chief Executive Officer dropped the hint in a chat with Sportsday on Thursday in Enugu.
“I can tell you that the currency of Nigeria is one of the biggest problems that football is facing”.
“This year you will have the best 10 to 12 players leaving the domestic league for other leagues because of $4000, $5000 or at most $10,000”.
“These players are leaving because the Naira is weak. They see this amount of money as huge sum after conversion into local currency”.
“All the players that won the trophy for Rangers last season, where are they today? Almost, 50 to 60% of them are out of the country because of the economy”.
“If Rangers had retained those players and added new ones, you would have seen an improvement in their games, more fans will attend their matches and also do well in continental games which will yield huge financial benefits for the league”.
“So, you can see that the macro economy is greatly affecting the growth of the game in the country”, Owumi stated..
The hopes of Coach Fidelis Ilechukwu-led Rangers picking a continental ticket to represent Nigeria in the CAF Confederation Cup next season was dashed on Wednesday, after losing by a lone goal against Kwara United in the semi-final of this year’s Federation Cup decided in Lagos.
