Chairman of the League Management Company, Shehu Dikko, has come out to give his words to Nigerian league football fans on the suspended league and the importance of obeying the government on the stay at home order when asked about the extent the pandemic has affected the league.
The chairman urged fans to stay safe and observe the directives of the government.
“Well, honestly the pandemic is affecting the league just as it’s affecting everything across the globe.
Sports industry generally is one of the worst hit in this as many things are time bound and even the finances is structured as such. We can see how global football leagues that we all thought are beyond shock have all been distorted especially financially, organizationally and legally among others.”
Dikko also commented on the damage the league suspension has caused especially on finance and organization. Nigeria along with other parts of the world is affected largely.
Dikko further explained “We too are on the same boat though not to their level. For example the second tranche of investment from Next tv was due the week the league was suspended as the investors and all had to delay now including preparation for commencement of testing or the broadcast. We have overdue payables from others which we can’t get now until all is sorted. We have seen how sponsors and broadcast partners are withhelding payments due across the world and we can’t be an exception.”
As the corona virus pandemic across the world is being tackled relentlessly, and some parts of the world is winning the war against the pandemic, Dikko expresses hope the the league will bounce back from its present trying time as long as the government are ready to invest on the health sector as it is evident. He also clamored the the Nigerian sports world should also be invested in as well.
“But honestly we also see a silver lining at the end of the day. Once all settled everyone now has realized just like it’s now evident huge investment has to be made into our health sector it’s now evident also huge investment we have been clamoring for into football and indeed sports in Nigeria”
Dikko concluded by calling in the government to put things in place in order to stop the reliance on foreign content. “has to be made as we all now have to see how we can build everything in-house and stop relying of foreign content. So I foresee that we would come out better.”
