Elegbeleye: Only neophytes in sports will doubt my capability as IMC chairman

By

Jennifer Okoye

FIRST OF ALL, I WILL SAY A BIG CONGRATULATION TO YOU! Everybody saw what was coming, during the NPFL, the just concluded season, But initially, a lot of people did not believe in what you can do. I just want you to let me know how was the whole journey. the IMC with NPFL, the beginning to the end of the season.

“Well thank you, if anybody out there was doubting my capability before we started, probably these people are not into what is happening in the Nigerian sports industry for like the last two decades, they forgot that in the House of Representatives, I was chairman Sports Committee and I contributed a lot in steering the wheel of the Parliament In sport matters, then I was later DG National Sports Commission (NSC) where I energized the place’’.

Flaunting his achievements, Elegbeleye reminded doubters that as the DG of NSC “we went to  Botswana for the African Youth Game, just four years after the one we had 9 medals, I was able to prepare the team that won 27 medals, 19 of this Gold, so compared to what happened, again I served the mission as DG of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 on record, please go and verify!. It remains the best outing for Nigeria in Commonwealth Games.”

He also recalled leading the Team Nigeria delegation to the Winter Olympics,” that was the first time a Nigerian team will be involved in Winter Olympics (2018) so you see, first time an African country getting involved in Winter Olympics, I lead the team, if anybody doubts me, that person doesn't know who Gbenga Elebgeye is.”

Sojourn in IMC

Elegbeleye confessed that the road to success recorded in the just concluded season was tough, “it was rough because, the old system never wanted to let go, the LMC and their supporters, so they kept attacking us.

I was prepared for the attack, if you keep attacking me; you give me more energy to fight more, then again we had sympathizers among the club chairmen”

He recalled that they were inaugurated in October, “We intended to start the league by middle of November we prepared for it they couldn't make it, they made it impossible, drag until we were able to start in January.

“And that is why we resolved that we must align our calendar with the rest of the world, exactly with the C.A.F calendar, F.I.F.A football calendar with a European league calendar we achieved that, we started in January and ended Super Six in the first week of June.”

Another major challenge was unpaid referees, “referees were not paid, for over three years, and I ask them and myself, if I were to be a referee, will I leave Lagos or leave aba to go to Maiduguri or Gombe or to go and officiate and you did not pay me?

And I will go to and fro and I will still be doing it for three years, that means there is something they are getting from somewhere that is killing the system. When you are not being paid you will continue to work? Officiating is a voluntary job is not a compulsory assignment, it’s not like NYSC job, you have to do your mandatory one year as a graduate, but yet they are not paying you,for 3 years they continue to stay, that is funny!.

‘’So when I came in, I said okay me and my colleagues we will not owe referees, we will design a way to pay them, we agreed, we met with our cooperate partner the DTI Group and we agreed, that look support us in paying the referees, they agreed after that we now said they still have to increase their money by 50%, after some meetings again they agreed, we now said transport allowance by 40% because we don't expect them to be going by road, we are going to be giving them money to fly, they agreed.

So once we are able to get that they now said we should prepare the cost and we now wrote the total cost for referees for the whole season, we gave to them and said this is the cost, they said we should send our account so they can send to money to us, I said no we don't want the money in our account, not like we don't trust ourselves,  but IMC does not have money now, there will be programs, probably we would have to use part of the money to execute those programs, let the referee money just be with you, all we need to do is to send you the account of those referees, a day before they go to officiate credit them, just let them get the alert, and they have been doing it since.

And not just that, everywhere they go we pay for their hotels, then pay for their feeding, so they don't spend their own money at all going, unlike before when they don't pay them, they spend their own money in quote, so you understand, now again what we are able to do, we now ask ourselves if referees we have been able to mobilize them to do well, be able to give them enough to do well, we have been able to give them to double their pay, the next thing is when they go to stadium what will give them the confidence, they have confidence that they have money to go and come my hotel will be taken care of by the system, my feeding will be taken care of by the system, then my transportation has been increased, then the confidence they need more is on the field of play, now they will be afraid of home fans, pitch invasion, attack on officials by hoodlums who call themselves or masquerading as supporters and I say okay again we have to meet with the clubs, anywhere they beat referees we deduct three points, we will not say pay money, any club can pay money, but when we say deduct three points, they know if they want to win the league, if you deduct three points from any team, they will not or may not have chance of winning the league anymore and deducting three points again may lead the club to relegation, so tell me, once we start that, Bayelsa United was the first victim, we deducted three points, Wikki Tourist was another victim, we deducted 3 points,

Now Remo Stars, owner and proprietor is my very good friend and a nice man, and again a member of IMC,  his club violated the rule we deducted three points, so now the rest of the teams now know these guys are serious, now the supporters are the ones now policing the stadium, they will always say, don't beat referee oo.. we don't want to lose 3 points, so that's how we were able to bring sanity into the stadium, for hoodlums not invading stadium, not causing crisis, so that's our strategy, we were able to achieve that. So far it was good.”