By: Gracious Akujobi
Association of Professional Footballer of Nigeria (APFON) has expressed delight at the recently announced broadcast sponsorship deal between the League Management Company (LMC) and Super Sport for the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).
The four-year sponsorship is worth $34m and will accommodate terrestrial broadcast stations to rebroadcast signals of live matches from the satellite channel.
Austin Popo, Secretary of APFON, the players’ union recognised by Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), the nation’s football ruling body described the new deal as another major step towards securing a rewarding career for active Nigerian football players.
“We welcome this partnership and wish to commend LMC and Super Sport for this partnership which has liberated the League from the clutches of profiteers who in the last seven years have fed fat on the sweat of Nigerian players”, Popo stated.
The APFON Scribe said the expectation of the players’ union is that their members will be beneficiaries of the proceeds of the sponsorship through enhanced welfare packages at their clubs.
“APFON sees a brighter future for the Nigerian player not only in terms of improved welfare but also in the expected windows of opportunities to the global football family that will be seeing the abundant qualities that abound in Nigeria”.
The League broadcast deal has been a subject of media speculation since 2006 with conflicting figures being debated as the rights fee paid through a third party to the defunct Nigeria Football League.
Popo says, “Today we have a deal whose value has been declared to the public and no middle agencies”. He praised members of the LMC for the foresight and courage to break away from a past that exploited a public asset.
APFON, he said, is urging the clubs to work with the LMC towards achieving full commercial exploitation of the Nigeria Professional Football League assets to expand the scope of accruable gains in job creation and improved returns for all stakeholders.
