Nationwide League One: Good synergy with media can attract sponsorship - Agara

By Olusola Adebayo 

Former Nasarawa State Deputy Governor, His Excellency Silas Agara has stressed the need for the Nationwide League One to have a good synergy with the media, as it bids to get brands' attention by way of sponsorships. 

Agara, who leads the newly constituted Board of the nation's third-tier domestic football league in his first official interaction with NLO Media Channel talked about his Board's plans.

"It's an opportunity to serve, I’m always available when my services are needed. This is a call to duty, to provide leadership to our teeming youths, with Board Members cut across the six geo-political zones. We met once as a board, immediately after the inauguration and set agendas for ourselves. 

"We hope to meet in the next few days to review the entire structure of the Nationwide League One. We are quite aware of the challenges on the ground, they’re surmountable. Luckily, we have persons that are knowledgeable in the league, who are proprietors of some of the clubs, and who are members of the board. With their worth of experience and that of the two State Football Association (State FA) Chairmen on the Board, we can certainly make headway.

"This a league that has over 300 clubs, a platform where you have young Nigerians with the age bracket of 14 to 19 years old, plying their trade and looking for opportunities to get exposed. The challenges are there, however too early to make public our plans as we have just been inaugurated but I can assure you that there is going to be a change of direction."

"We want to have a good synergy with the media, as that’s the best way we can showcase the NLO. We can do this by getting the right reportage and of course, brands that will sponsor the league. Without the right media coverage of NLO activities to a global audience, sponsorship won’t come.

"We need the media to reach out to these top brands, and of course intending sponsors have to rely on the good reportage of the league and not negative ones, for them to make critical decisions. If we don't have that understanding with the media, we can't fly our kite regarding sponsorship. We also need to woo the media and bring our plans to the league on the table for them to see and help us reach out to Nigerians.

"The need to get our officiating right is also another key area we want to look into. Once we have officiating in the league professionally done, with match officials well catered for and not left at the mercies of clubs, footing the bills, this will bring some level of sanity to the league.

"We’re also looking at the home and away match format, and the different ones for the league, to see how we can reduce the burden for the clubs, as many are not making profits yet. At the moment, I will plead with Nigerians to give the new NLO Board a little time, with the assurance that in the next week, we should be able to take proper stock of what is on the ground, know the reforms to introduce, and above all get the right sponsors for the league. 

I'm delighted with what I have seen on the ground, the Chief Operating Officer (Olushola Ogunnowo) has done well for the league and now he has got a Board that will support him."

On plans for next season's NLO Youth League: "We are monitoring events at this edition and surely will proffer solutions to the loopholes from what we have seen from the maiden edition. The Board, really has not much time as our tenure is for two years, however, since we have been given the marching order by the NFF, our job is to address issues and improve on what's on the ground."