‘Privately owned NPFL clubs need level playing field to survive’
Astute sports journalist and Sporting Director of ABS FC Ilorin, Alloy Chukwuemeka has said privately owned clubs in the Nigeria Professional Football League will survive only when government funded clubs cease to exist in the league. He also spoke to SHOT! on his club and other topical issues in the Nigerian League.
How disappointed were you with the draw your team played against Kano Pillars on Wednesday in Ilorin?
We were disappointed in the sense that we put in everything into the match. For the past 12 years, we have not beaten Kano Pillars in any competitive match. Secondly, you will recall that some weeks back, we launched our new Puma kits but we did not use it. We were waiting for the Pillars match which by any standard is a big game. It was our belief that using the new kits against Pillars would boost the morale of our players. Unfortunately, in their usual characteristics, the same Pillars denied us the victory. In fact, we managed to force them to draw in our home. You know Pillars are a big in the NPFL with experienced players as compared to our young lads. They paraded at least five Home-based Super Eagles players. In fact, they played better and so we thank God for the draw.
So how are you going to move on from the draw against Kano Pillars?
We shall take one match at a time. This weekend we are going to Lagos to play MFM. We and MFM are in the same category. Both teams parade youngsters so their experience won’t be more than ours. Although we returned and met them in the topflight, we have many things in common. We shall take everything to Lagos and try as much as possible to secure a good result against MFM.
Would you say you are quite satisfied with the performance of your team so far?
Of course if you look at the beginning of the season, we were always there among the top three teams until we had two drawn matches at home. We then slipped to the middle of the table. However, if you look at the table, it is a close race. You will discover that virtually all the teams are quite close from the first club to the last on the table. And we are very much happy that we are not at the bottom of the table. We are in the middle and our target this season is to ensure that we keep the team in the Premier so that by next season we would plan how to achieve whatever we set out to achieve.
Are you therefore assuring your teeming fans that ABS won’t have anything to do with relegation?
There will be no relegation worries for ABS. There is no cause for alarm. The league is almost gone. We have just about 12 more matches to play and all we need do is to win our home matches and try to pick one or two matches away from home and we shall be home and dry.
As a privately owned club in the NPFL, what are the major challenges your club is facing?
The biggest challenge is funding because whether we like it or not about 85% or 90% of the clubs are owed by government and when government funded clubs are now playing in the same league with clubs whose main source of income is private individuals, you know that there will be no basis for comparison. The main challenge therefore is the funding and environment. The funding of most of the clubs by government has created inequality among the clubs and that is why everybody is clamouring for government disengagement. When government disengages from ownership of clubs, you will discover that there will be a level playing ground for every club. If that happens, what will take a club ahead of the rest would be structure, preparations and calibre of players you parade. But in a situation where by as a privately owned club, you go local to source for players to come and compete against government owned clubs who can use N100 million, N200 million or even N500 million to get one or two things done to outwit you, you won’t stand any chance. You don’t have the funds to challenge them. We just hope that with the coming of League Management Company, and the environment created so far, there will be a level playing field and we shall have more private clubs in the league.
In the face of the present challenges, what are the structures that have been laid for the continuous existence of ABS?
Yes, of course what we have tried to do is to have a solid structure on ground that encourages youth development. We source our players instead of looking for millions of naira to go and buy players. We source them locally and that is helping us. And only recently, we signed a multi-million naira kit deal with Puma whereby our kits and all the other equipment we are going to use in the next five years is guaranteed. Again, since Puma came in, we have been having interest from many other private companies that want to partner with us based on our structure and performance in the league. I want to assure you that before the commencement of next season, you will see more endorsements from ABS apart from Puma. That will go a long way in sustaining us pending the final disengagement of government owned clubs.
It is a known fact that the Proprietor of ABS is the current Senate President. How much support does he give to the club?
His Excellency, The Senate President, Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki who is the proprietor of the club is passionate about football. And when you are passionate about something, no matter how busy you are, you try to create time for such a thing. He is somebody who has the interest of the club at heart right from its formative years, 10 to 11 years ago, and he has continued to encourage the club. Even when we went on relegation, he kept sponsoring the club till we returned to the Premier League and he is still supplying all our needs even as a private person. Moreover, considering the fact that he believes in youth development, he sees the club as an appropriate platform for him to encourage the youths to play professional football. Invariably, young players all over the country are encouraged by the structure of ABS to play professional football. Yesterday one of our U15 players was dressed against Kano Pillars. It is our own way of telling him that you have a future. In the next 10 years that boy will be 25 years and you can imagine what he will do for the club and Nigeria. Our proprietor has given us the mandate to make ABS a model club for other NPFL clubs and that is exactly what we are doing.
What would you say has been ABS most difficulty match so far in the ongoing season?
The most difficult match we played should be our match against El-kanemi Warriors in Ilorin. They came and gave us tough time. We never expected them to be that difficult to beat. We always prepare very well against any opponent that is coming to our home but that of El-kanemi, we gave them tough time in Maiduguri, so our boys believed that we would just over ran them in Ilorin. However, when they came, the match dragged and dragged towards the dying minutes before we could secure a miraculous goal to win.
Which of the victories recorded by ABS brought the club so much happiness?
That was the match against Nasarawa United. We almost ended in a draw and apart from the fact that the match was heading toward a draw, the coach of Nasarawa United is a former coach of ABS and about nine players playing for Nasaarwa United are our former players so the Ilorin township stadium that day was divided. Nasaarwa got more support than us. Everything was in their favour. In addition, their coach apart from being our former coach is a traditional ruler in Ilorin. So the whole town was supporting him. So we were even praying that the match should end in a draw. However, towards the end of the match, we got a free kick outside the 18and one of our defenders, Ernest Governor took a ferocious shot and the ball sailed into the net. We couldn’t believe it until the ball hit the net. There was wild jubilation and it remains the only match that gave us the greatest joy.
Would you say the coming of the League Management Company has brought about the necessary changes in the Nigerian league?
The league is thriving. They are putting in a lot of programmes to ensure that we have adequate security. They also ensure that match indemnities which used to be a major challenge are paid promptly and this has guaranteed some measure of fairness. The LMC also ensures that all clubs are playing within the rules and nobody is above the rules. They ensure that any club that infringes on the rules is punished promptly just as you can see Sunshine Stars being banished to Ijebu Ode and other clubs playing behind closed doors. In the past there were rules but such rules were hardly enforced to the letter. But LMC ensures that most of the decisions taken are within the provisions of the rules and that is why no club has gone to higher judicial process of football. This shows that they are being fair and just in their decisions. Again, they have shown financial transparency in their dealings with the clubs. Clubs get all their entitlements from TV rights and title sponsorship as and when due. And there is yearly improvement in what the clubs get from the league body. All these things have been put in place by the LMC to improve the league and you can see the return of the fans to the stadia after many years of playing in empty stadia. If you look at ABS match yesterday (Wednesday) against Kano Pillars, we almost had full capacity. This shows that LMC is doing well.
Are there areas you still want the LMC to improve on?
There are still challenges like the issue of some isolated cases of insecurity that led to attacks on referees causing the banishment of some clubs. Therefore, the LMC should rise up in the area of security and the area of training and re-training of referees through the NFF so that officiating will improve better than what is happening.