Bukola Olopade, the Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria National League, on Tuesday said better performances should be expected in the second phase of the competition.
Olapade told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja that in spite of the huge improvements the league management had brought about, “more measures are being put in place to ensure that the standard of the league improves”.
He said: “Now the main focus of the board in the second phase of the league is to ensure that the referees perform better than they did in the first stanza.
“We also want to see an improvement in the area of the discipline at club level, especially in the Northern Conference.”
NAN reports that the league, which is the second tier of Nigerian football league, had kicked off its 2016/2017 season on March 17 and resumed for the second phase on June 21.
While the Northern Conference resumed with Match Day 14 fixtures, the Southern Conference resumed with Match Day 18 fixtures.
Olopade said it was in this regard that the NNL board members would be going round to match venues to ensure that the referees performed optimally.
He said: “The board members’ presence at the match venues will let the referees know that we are on ground to scrutinise and evaluate their performances.
“We will go to matches, introduce ourselves and let the referees know we were around to watch a fantastic match, and they should do their job.
“Psychologically, when the referee realises that the top echelon of the league board were watching him, definitely he would do his best.’’
The NNL CEO said further that the cordial relationship between the board and the media in the area of match coverage was a welcome development.
Olopade assured: “So many measures have been put in place to preserve the integrity of the league. Our goal is to ensure that the best clubs win these conferences.
“Credit must also be given to the league management for the fact that, week in week out, a minimum of seven to eight draws and away victories were recorded.
“This never happened in the league before. Credit must be given to the new board of the NNL under the leadership of Chidi Offor.”
Olopade said the league management was striving to get more sponsors for the competition.
He said: “Just last week I had discussion with the Nigeria Football Federation President, where I presented some pictorial materials of an automobile company, who are potential sponsors of the league.
“Very soon the issue relating to the sponsorship will be sorted out and we will present the company to the whole world.”
Olopade however commended the leagues past managers for laying the foundation the current board were building on.
He said: “The NNL started from ground zero and we must give credit to the previous administrators, like Seyi Akinwunmi and Emeka Inyama, for the foundation we are building on.
“I must confess to you that even the sponsorship deal we got with Bet9ja started with those two gentlemen, when they were in charge of the board.
“When we came in, due to the relationships and perseverance with the sponsor, we got the agreement sorted out to bring in more money so that the club sides can leverage on it.”
Olopade said the NNL, through the deal with Bet9ja, has been able to take over the payment of referees’ indemnities from the clubs.
He said: “What that means is that each club is now able to save not less than N300,000 every week.
“It is expected that the money saved by the clubs would be channeled towards better welfare for their players.”
The NNL CEO urged the clubs’ management to ensure better welfare packages for their players.
He further stated: “I do not believe that this veritable tool of empowerment can be done without creating huge incentives for those who participate.
“So, we are talking to the clubs’ management on the need to put in place a good salary structure and the necessity of having a pension scheme for their players.
“There are ongoing talks with some banks on players’ pension scheme.
“We are at the verge signing a 2.5 million dollars pension scheme a year with some banks, to ensure that our players after retirement can now start living better lives.
“What we have observed is that most of our players who represented the country after retirement are suffering simply because there were no modalities for any pension scheme.
“That is being done now in the Nigeria Professional Football League through the League Management Company and, in a nutshell, we are also working on that too in the NNL.”
– NAN