Former minister of sports, Chief Sunday Dare has come out with a scathing prediction that all football clubs owned by state governments in Nigeria will soon falter and die, Sports247 reports.
Dare, who is now President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s special adviser on media and public communication, added that the best way forward for Nigerian football is private sector investment in all aspects of the game.
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The highly respected and experienced journslist-turned-politician disclosed further at a media chat that, during his years as sports minister, he spoke to all states that own clubs in the Nigerian league and advised them to sell them to private investors or risk seeing them die.
He took another look at the ongoing Super-4 of the second-tier Nigeria National League (NNL) and affirmed that the presence of only private-owned clubs in the competition shows that his prophecy is already coming to pass.
Dare stressed that the way out of the woods for Nigerian sports and football in particular is to follow the strategy he set in motion, where investment cuts across various aspects of the sector.
“When I was minister,” Dare recalled, “We put together a Nigerian Sports Industry Policy, which took us three years to develop. It was predicated on what we called the Three I-s – investment, infrastructure and incentives.
“Our ultimate focus was on incentives, which is best gained through support from the private sector, while not depending on government for limited funds.”
The media guru then cited the magnificent Remo Stars Stadium built by Honourable Kunle Soname at Ikenne in Ogun State, which he described as a global standard symbol of what private investment in sports should look like, without any input from government.
“We must invest in building infrastructure for sports. That’s why I am impressed with what Chief Soname has done at Ikenne. This is a huge private investment.
“He needs a lot of incentives for him to continue to run a place like this. Other investors should see what Soname is doing through his investment in sports.
“That’s one area of business in our country that has been abysmal. When you look at it properly, you’ll realise we are not investing in sports as we should,” Dare stressed.
He concluded by reeling out various aspects of private sports investment and the benefits that accrue to it, especially when it is done properly and with the best of intentions.
“The truth about investing in sports is that there must be an emphasis on players, infrastructure and incentives – with other values also attached. You can’t be different from those who are doing it properly.
“There are no shortcuts. That’s why, when I was minister, I spoke with every single state government that had a football club, and I told them a time would come when they will have to let go.
“They will have to sell the club to private concerns for them not to die. I said back then, unless they sell those clubs, they will die.
“Now, we are beginning to see a manifestation of that prediction. As we go on, all state-owned clubs will falter and fail, while private clubs will survive,” Dare projected.
