By Okechukwu Emmanuel
Retired Nigerian football referee Dele Atoun has criticized state governments who throw gates open for fans to watch for free their teams play at their home stadium.
The retired referee said that it was indeed alarming how some state governments have made Nigerian fans lose the value of paying to watch their team playing.
In an interview with Sports247, he said: “One thing I have discovered is that over a period of time, we have helped football fans to feel that football is not worth paying to watch.
In Lagos for instance, all league games (NLO, NNL etc) are watched free of charge with the exception of MFM who charge N200/N500.
In this same Lagos, people pay N500/N1000 to watch Boxing bout. Lagosians pay as much to watch ram fight”.
The Former referee who is now a referee assessor went further to criticize the decisions of some states to throw the gates open even when the Major brand of our football(The Super Eagles) is in town to execute a game. He also encouraged state football club sides to place value on our football and also to emulate Kano state in their culture of fans paying to watch their team (Kano Pillars) executive football matches.
He said “Football is the king of Sports in Nigeria yet, Nigerians don’t pay to watch football. Even in most cases, gates are thrown open FOC whenever Super Eagles play. Is there any other country that does that?
In Kano, there’s a culture of paying to watch football matches and we see it whenever Kano Pillars play. State league games in Kano is 5/100/200 while Kano Pillars game is 100/200/500. Yet, there will be more paying fans in Kano than other states that throw their gate open FOC, (Free Of Charge).
Let’s develop a culture of making spectators pay for games, let’s place value on our football”. He concluded
