A Tsa-Esque System that can Solve the Problem of Nonpayment of NPFL Players
The government of Taraba State, owners of Taraba Football Club, shamed us all in December when it emerged that for a mindboggling 11 months they had failed to pay the salaries of their players. How is that even fathomable That was practically a full seas
Going forward, I think it is incumbent on the LMC to tackle club owners hard such that they become more responsible to their charges. Taraba FC were not the only guilty club in the 2015 season, a number of others clubs owed players for many months despite threats of points deduction by the league managers. Clearly, given the way the Nigerian society works, there are bound to be a variety of ways to circumvent rules relating to the sanctions of clubs that err in the payment of wages to the players and officials. There were also claims of players being bullied into accepting whatever wages they were paid as there is hardly any accountability in the system. However here is a system I believe will bring some probity to the system.
What if a bank (perhaps the official banking partner of the league) is responsible for paying the wages of every player in this country on a particular day of the month? Let us imagine that on say the 26th of every month players pan Nigeria receive alerts for their monthly wages from this bank. What happens in this case is that the club owners are made to deposit players’ wages with this bank, and the bank then disburses the funds to all the players. Should the club owners default in their payment, the bank still goes ahead to honour the players wages pending when the club owners can pay – but this time with the requisite interest. Basically this means every club is compelled to open an account with this bank, with all their players registered and their true wages specified. That way the system is cleaned up and details made clear, while the players can then focus on the business of football and winning laurels. Ideally a bank should pay for this privilege which can also create business for insurance companies who cover the entire programme.
Again, given the way Nigeria works, I will not be holding my breath as there are many reasons why a system like this would be resisted. For one there is virtually no accountability in the way clubs are run in this country. Most of the clubs are owned by state governments and only shadowy details are given as to how they are funded and the funds are managed. Unfortunately, it is hardly a different picture where the clubs are owned by private investors. It helps those who take advantage of this that the public who should insist on accountability are hardly interested in the domestic league because of the popularity of the European game, and chiefly the English Premier League, in Nigeria. This system could also see a number of owners back off the league as transparency could be seen as a hurdle, but then is it not better to have a top-flight of ten seriously-run clubs than a bloated one of 20 teams that is poorly run and uncompetitive?
Lessons from Black December
1. It is becoming increasingly untenable for state governments to run football clubs in Nigeria with the economic picture of the country at its gloomiest for years and years. There is no magic the federal and state governments can perform to boost revenues if the global oil industry continues its frightening slide. It is expected that a barrel of oil could sell for lower than $20 this year, so nothing can be expected from the sector which has accounted for over 90% of our revenues before now. For sure we are not going to turn into a production-driven economy overnight. What our state governments can get from the centre this year will only be crumbs and they will be under pressure to put every naira into bread and butter use.
2. There is a need to ensure club owners come clean with their books in the Nigerian leagues. Until this is done, not much can be expected by way of achieving true progress in our domestic game. This responsibility, beyond all else, lies at the doorstep of the media. It would be important to know for instance how a club went 11 months without paying its players, because if we do not know, we cannot learn and take preventive steps in the future.
3. The LMC needs to get tougher with erring clubs in the future, because those clubs are the ones that would likely drag the league and the more serious clubs down. It is important, for instance, that the league managers take a bloodless view of the game today and determine whether the idea of a 20-team Nigerian Professional Football League remains viable. If the economic picture worsens, it may be better to have a well-funded league of ten teams than one of 20 teams that leaves our game unattractive.
4. To all who run sports in Nigeria, please note that the athletes are the ones that lay the golden eggs. Abuse them, maltreated them, debase them and you will not have a sport anyone will be attracted to. Topmost on the LMC’s agenda must be to eliminate situations that would compromise the ability of players to give their utmost. We would really not like to see the ugly picture of unpaid players in 2016.
5. The LMC’s initiative to pay the Taraba FC players and officials their wages for December is highly commendable. It is clear to all who bother with the domestic game that the LMC since its inception has battled to make something of the NPFL despite limited funds and having to fight out many foes who battle to this day to gain control of the local game. However it is clear much still needs to be done and time may not be too friendly to the LMC in 2016.
Football house on fire again
With a new minister of sports in power, different interests have resurfaced to battle for control of the Nigeria Football Federation and the country’s league. I had initially wanted to make this the lead, but reversed the decision because nothing I was going to say sounded like something I had not read, or heard about, a million times before. It is indeed pretty depressing that at a time when fellow men are exploring the possibility of life on other planets, ramping up science on artificial intelligence, pushing towards a future with robots as foot soldiers, developing driverless cars, looking for ways to save the planet from self destruction, building a power station more powerful than the sun, and taking so many other laudable steps in moving humanity forward, we are still mired at the base level where the simple running of a sport seems to have challenged us more than rocket science.
Surely there has to be a time when we must subjugate our personal interests to advance for the greater good. The NFF and LMC may have their problems, but both are running well for the first time in years and it is clear Nigerian football in moving in the right direction resultantly. So why do we want to stop that and start all over again; face new FIFA sanctions, new court cases, and new steps backwards. Even where the world governing body has ruled – after months of Nigeria being made to look foolish in the global sphere - we want to show the world that we can descend even further into the murk.
The current government led by President Muhammadu Buhari faces more challenges than perhaps any other government in the 55 years since our independence and as I have written here a few times, sports minister Solomon Dalung occupies a vitally important position. The government needs to diversify the economy from its dependence on oil, and sports can provide a huge platform to contribute to that. Dalung must seize his chance to be a national star by finding fresh ways to make sports a big part of our survival plan. What he cannot afford however are new fights that set his regime backwards before he can even take his first step forward.