Akinkunle Bolarinwa
It is appalling seeing NPFL clubs brandishing one page paper without details or clauses as players valid contractual agreement, one may wonder what type of agreement can be embedded in a sheet of paper.
Well, that is the story of the nation's domestic football players, their agents and NPFL clubs.
Lack of basic education has remained an albatross for Nigerian footballers and most times this has left them cursing their luck and living in penury.
Tackling this issue without knowing the root cause is just a wasteful exercise.
The problem is majorly from the players, they are greedy and don't want any proper management to help them, NPFL players are still signing miserable contracts as a result of lacking adequate knowledge concerning contracts.
These players, educated or not, need lawyers to read the contract and their obligations to them; an example was that of Ibrahim Olawoyin with Rangers, they put a clause that almost destroyed his movement to Turkey, the player had to beg, meanwhile he had an agent who didn't follow up.
Yes, players are quick to jump and sign any paper called agreement or contract, they just want to hear salaries and bonuses.
The operators of the league are part of this carnage as they fail to apply due diligence in players and clubs relationship, they make it easy for administrators to cheat players, the league body also makes it easy for the clubs to get away with this shenanigans by refusing to pay attention to this scam and rot in contractual dispute.
The failure of the NFF to constitute a players status committee and arbitration to help players get justice after being owed or detained by clubs is not helping matters at all. Only foreign players in the league can get justice from FIFA while the laws says the NFF is in charge of local players.
The league authorities accept anything from the clubs without checking with the players forgetting that the players are the main actors in the game.
The same cannot be said of their counterparts in Europe and to some great extent in North and Southern Africa, where players have enjoyed considerable levels of success post careers.
The Interim Management Committee (IMC) shouldn’t be docile with this important aspect of football agreement, they should institute a crusade of players having at least the basic education to equip themselves to handle Shylock agents hovering around them like hawks.
Many have been brainwashed by these agents most with loaded pockets, clout, connections but have done little to properly equip their clients for the harsh post-career weather.
Many players have not recovered from this and most times, death ends the sad stories.
Football players in Nigeria are sadly regarded as never-do-wells in school and only have the beautiful game to lean on for survival and a veritable route to escape poverty.
How much can the IMC on its own do? If the rich state-owned clubs still owe players, how do they expect them to play their hearts out, breaking arms and limbs in the process?.
Who cares? As expected, there is supposed to be a football welfare association in this nation but none of such exists. The defunct LMC/NFF at a time said that for any team to feature in the league, it must meet the minimum requirement of N150,000, and also they will supervise the payment. Some have been fined and some threatened with fines and points deduction.
Significantly, intervention from the IMC/NFF to ensure the players are paid their dues and not run on the pitch with an empty stomach, including, in many instances, psychological traumas.
Players are human beings for God’s sake, not puppets.
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