Re-Defining LMC and Ownership of the League! Attention! Mr Harry Iwuala.(LMC Media attache) I want to start this short piece by the saying that:- No matter how beautiful an umbrella looks, you can never build a house on top of it. But a house properly built on a solid foundation can however be covered with an good umbrella/Zinc This assertion above might best describe the much talked about laudable innovations being planned by the League Management company LMC to change the face of our elite league under a stolen mandate. History will bear witness that a congress of the Nigeria premier League had met in Abuja and sacked the Baribote led league board and consequently set up a six man interim committee to oversee the League pending the election of a substantive league board in line with the statutes. You will also recall that the NFF had intervened immediately by halting the six man committee and thereafter set-up a 13-man interim League Management committee with a mandate to manage the league for one season, proffer solutions and better practices and set a machinery in place for election of a substantive League board. The above information clearly reveals the genesis of the League Management committee cum company and how it was created with a clear cut mandate given by the NFF. So, contrary to what the LMC media attache (Harry Iwuala) claims, that the LMC came as a result of a court order or judgement is a complete falsehood and misleading. The judgement in question was given when the NFF and NFL were declared illegal by an order of a high court. If Mr Harry Iwuala could say that it was based on the Judgement that gave life to his LMC, then why was the LMC inaugurated by an Illegal body, the NFF as declared by the court? Can something be built on Nothing? Another thing Mr Harry Iwuala failed to understand is that the same judgement he was referring to was appealed against and that was why the CAC had since being unable to wind up the NFL LTD as directed by the court..And that appeal is what has kept Nff to continue to exist up till today despite the court judgement. Again whatever model or pattern of administration that best befits the elite league as being promoted by the LMC, it is expected that the LMC as part of its mandate and as stipulated in their terms of reference, should be drawn and submitted to the Federation which in turn will invite the clubs and table it before them as the new format of how best to manage the League. And that was why the clubs kicked against the registration of the company LMC and consequently disassociated self from it up till today, even as the circumstances surrounding its registration and ownership is still a subject of debate and investigation by the clubs. As part of its misdeeds, acts to cut corners and circumvent to rules in order to perpetually remain in the management of the league, the controversial 99 yrs league license granted to LMC was done without the approval of either the Nff executive committee or the AGA which resides with the supreme powers to inject and alter the statutes.( Which of the meetings was it discussed) Mr Iwuala of LMC also made some revelations when he admitted that part of their strategy to unlawfully remain in the management of the league is to work hard and relegate any club that its official tends to be vocal against the illegal LMC.(Eg Alloy/ABSFC) I know that one day Nigerians will ask questions on why that youthful team that play the best brand of football got relegated. It is noteworthy to state here that a good product sells itself, if the Clubs are comfortable with the operations of the LMC,they will be the ones to run to the NFF to clamour for their stay and not vice versa. Because a situation where you want to force your goods on the people to buy is not advisable. (It is like Respect you earn it, you dont force it on people to respect you) The fear here is that the way the LMC has been paying for adverts in the Media and cajoling people to preach their own gospel leaves much to be imagined and desired. Let me also bring to the notice of the Nigeria football public that the Club Owners in our resolve to better our league, had signed a joint agreement with LMC to adopt the English Premiership model in the Management of the League. It was a fall out of the desire of the then Minister of Sports Bolaji Abdulahi to permanently resolve the crisis in the League system and to foster a cordial working relationship between the LMC and the Club Owners. That agreement was signed in the absence of the LMC boss and his spokesman, only for him to return to the country and jettisoned it because according to him he was not ready to be accountable to the clubs. So am very surprised today that they are now referring to that document apparently due to their perceived fear that the clubs might not be ready to play along again. Hon. Nduka led LMC has also forgotten that he was brought into the league system to suggest the needed way forward and leave the scene for the real owners, and I could vividly recall what he said at his inaugural chat with the Media that he wont stay extra 5minutes beyond the stipulated one season mandate handed to him..... But what we are witnessing today is the opposite.(So where is the honour in the Honourable) As the Nduka led LMC continue to hide under new innovations which we are still battling to notice,(with poor officiating in our league, assault on match officials,insecurity at match venues, politically approved poor pitches, poor spectatorship, incessant sack of coaches, players Strike, undue Litigation etc) have they in their two seasons under its watch been able to attract any new sponsors? This question is for them to answer as it is a well know fact that both the Glo contract and the Super sports Tv contract were all inherited from the previous boards of the league. Moreso let nobody deceive us with improvement on sponsorship values. It is pertinent to note that the value of the title sponsorship has decreased from what it used to be in the past years, because what Clubs got during the tenure of chief obaseki is higher than what they are getting as at present.(Check your records) We should also not be deceived by the bougous claims of improved sponsorship values because even in 2010 the league board then under Davidson Owumi signed a whopping 3billion naira title sponsorship with MTN which was thwarted as a result of environmental factors. We are also not unaware that the improvement in the TV right sponsorship by the LMC could best be seen as a futuristic bondage as LMC entered into a deal up to 2019 when we dont know how the economy of the world would be by then, as well as without thinking or taken in consideration the future worth of the league.(Amidst several litigation) CLUB OWNERSHIP The Association of Club chairmen and Managers (Club Owners) was formed many years ago and it is a legal entity ( Club Proprietors LTD) for the interest of member clubs and for the development of the League and football. For the purpose of clarification, the Club Owners are neither the organizers of the League nor the constituted League board, rather a pressure group whose aim is to advance the interest of its member clubs. Let me not bother you with the activities of the Association but the key issue here is that I want to let you into knowing what FIFA thinks about Clubs and its ownership. As a certified FIFA football Administrator and having attended both local and international FIFA organized courses, the origin of Association football emanated from Clubs... This is because without the clubs there is no organized football or football Administration. Therefore the Club Owners are the original Owners and bedrock of any organized Association football. Football can be played in schools, academies, in churches and Islamic Schools even amongst Journalists(Media games) etc, but the advent of organized and professional football began with formation of clubs. It is after clubs have been formed that a gathering of several clubs now come together to pick organizers of the competition or League as the case maybe, then the Federation which regulates. Note that without clubs there wont be federation, because it is the clubs that play the league, produce champions to play in the continent and also produce players for National teams. So the clubs and club owners remain the heart beat of any football system. When FIFA talk about Federation and its affiliates, they mean affiliated Leagues, Clubs and Associations and not Affiliated Companies like LMC However in Nigeria, the case is quite different because over 90% of our clubs are owned by the various Governments and its Agencies, but this governments appointed their representative who sit as owners and take day to day decisions as they affect the Clubs on their merit as professionals and Administrators. So for those who say it is the Governors that should be called club owners are only showcasing their low knowledge of delegated powers. Come to think of it,are the governors the owners of the clubs? or is the clubs state and peoples property? THE WAY FORWARD! The main job of the Federation NFF is to defend the statutes and as such ensure proper regulation of Association football in line with the FIFA approved Statutes, electoral codes, rule books and extant Laws. If the Clubs insist today that there wont be league matches and jointly write to NFF, CAF and FIFA to uphold the provision of the statutes on League management, then we would be forced to do the needful. The lasting solution to all these avoidable crisis is to toe the line of justice by calling the LMC to submit their road map for a better league management system, sit down on a round table with the clubs and fashion its applicability in full consideration of our peculiarity and environmental factors. I want to totally agree with the LMC that the era of club chairmen managing the league should be over, but let the clubs elect their League board of directors of which the chairman becomes the 2nd vice president of the NFF in line with the statutes. Then the board can thereafter sit with the congress of the clubs and appoint an independent league management team(eg LMC or. any other sect) who will be in charge of the day to day running of the League without interference and with full legal status of operation. The job of the league board will then be narrowed to policy formulation and advisory status viz-a-viz other functions as may be spelt out. Better still the adoption of the English premiership model and its domestication in Nigeria could also serve as another option. Let us all see this arguments and positions as our own contributions to proffer solutions to move our football forward and avoid acts capable of causing disaffection amongst the relevant stake holders. I must sincerely commend the Hon Nduka Irabor led LMC for their efforts so far in changing the face of our league as posterity and history will remember their contributions and that of others before them. May God help Nigeria football. Alloy Chukwuemeka Ag. Secretary Club Owners Sent this piece from his village
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 07:48:45 +0000
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