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NPFL - STARTIMES DEAL: MALLAM SHUAIBU GARA GOMBE MISLEADING THE SPORTS INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA


NPFL - STARTIMES DEAL: MALLAM SHUAIBU GARA GOMBE MISLEADING THE SPORTS INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA


My attention is seriously drawn to the fact that Mallam Gara Gombe clearly shows in his recent submission to the Guardian that he has ill interests and it isn't only about fighting for the interest of local football but also trying to show that he deserves to be the one leading Nigerian football through his open statements against the NPFL leadership he referred to as illegitimate in one of his recent releases.


Remember, "what is good for the goose is also good for the garner." It is a fact he desires to get to the top of football leadership in Nigeria and he might feel at this point he alone has the monopoly of football administrative knowledge. Wouldn't you expect others to deliberately begin to employ similar tactics to topple your leadership too? 


Gara Gombe said; quote: "Because Nigeria is a dumping ground you illegally appoint people to manage a league they know nothing about what clubs are facing." I guess the clubs are well represented on the board if I am not mistaken. So why make such misleading statements? You know the people that were appointed are 'mostly' football stakeholders of great repute. Again I quote him: "I am never looking for an appointment. I never lobbied for it in my life." And another quote of his: "70% of the Gusau people that have been given appointments are not better than me and not loyal to him." I think this might be the main problem Gara Gombe has and not the ills he pointed out in this STARTIMES deal.


Doesn't it sound like throwing our local football content back into crises is his basic plan? I don't want to believe he is obsessed with causing an injury to our local league at this point. How do you value our league and what's the ratio you are even using at this point? The Super 8 was organized immediately after the Super 6, and we saw it had a good impact when we talked about awareness. Our stadiums were never patronized anymore since the fans saw our football to be dead except in a few states that still had good football followership. This league needs to be marketed and this is the best thing that is happening to it for now.


When the Gbenga Elegbeleye-led NPFL Board announced the STARTIMES - NPFL broadcast deal, many NPFL clubs, and stakeholders must have started thinking about how, when, and if the money due clubs in this deal would be made available to clubs. 


We have Mallam Gara jump up not only discrediting the deal but also trying to mislead the clubs to not focus on getting a better bargain out of the amounts meant for them.


What the NPFL clubs should look out for at this point are some of the facts I've outlined below;

1. Other bodies involved in this deal (NWFL, NNL, LEAGUE CUP, U19 Youth League, etc)

2.  Exact amounts going to the 20 NPFL clubs

3. When the NPFL Board would receive the payment from STARTIMES

4. What the sharing or distribution formula should be

5. When the clubs would receive their share

6. The terms and conditions are to be rightly spelled out with the consequences if the clubs cause any breach.


The NPFL Director of Communications Harry Iwualu released a comprehensive submission about the STARTIMES - NPFL deal and I want to believe he ignored the entire message the release presented. I think Gara Gombe based his research on either outdated or false reports since he is still not right about the submissions put in the Guardian regarding the South African Premier League (SPL) and the Ghana Premier League (GPL.) 


If he still insists this STARTIMES - NPFL broadcast deal must be juxtaposed with other African leagues 'right away' then I still don't see any kind of sincerity of purpose in his submissions. I would continue to make it clear that those submissions are entirely with ill intentions.


Austin Akpehe

Executive Chairman

Galaxy Sports Development China and Galaxy Sports Academy Nigeria

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