" Unusual Business" of IMC and the special 2023 NPFL season

By Olusola Adebayo 

The 2023 season of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) will no doubt be an "unusual business" as the season is expected to be filled with lots of drama if the schemes and utterances of the key actors and the series of events leading to the kickoff are anything to go by.

From the dissolution of the League Management Company, the reappearance of Total Promotions Limited in the court, and the subsequent inauguration of the Interim Management Company (IMC) which took over as the custodian of the league, the series of events have been dramatic and the latest installment is the disagreement of the format of the new season between the club managers ( Club Owners Association) and the IMC. 

Surely, we are in for an interesting and special 2023 NPFL season both on and off the pitch.

But the focus of this write-up is not for the controversies nor to be or not to be the format of the league but the new things fans of the game in the country must know as we all await the kick-off of the season on Sunday 8th of January, 2023. 

Hopefully, the 16 Club Owners who disagree with the format eventually allow sleeping dogs to lie and turn up for their respective games in week 1 as released by the IMC. 

Here are some of the propositions that make the 2023 NPFL season special 

1.  Abridged season 

The 2023 season will begin on the 8th of January 2023 and end by the end of May 2023. 
According to the fixtures released by the IMC, this is because the league will be played in an abridged format has trams gave divided into group A and group B with the top 3 from each group going into a Super 6 to determine the eventual winner of the league as well the three terms that will preparesesesent the country on the continent in the 2023/2024 season of the CAF inter-club competitions. 

The IMC hinged their decisions not to have the straight league of 38 matches as proposed by the club owners association on the fact that the season must end in May, to enable the country to meet up with CAF's deadline for the submission of teams that will represent the country on the continent of the straight league will run till the end of July which might too late to meet up with the deadline set by CAF. 

2. 100 million for the winner / 10 million take-off grants. 

Never before in the history of the league, the clubs will be getting a take grants as the Committee has secured a 10-year partnership deal worth Ten Billion Naira (N10 billion) with GTI Group. 

According to the GMD of GTI Group, Mr.Abubakar Lawal will cover title sponsorship, broadcast rights, match officials’ indemnities, infrastructure development, properties, and ensuring that the 20 premier league clubs become independent of government sponsorship. 

The projection by the group for the NPFL is expected to hit a mega figure of about N10 Billion in 2023/33 when the contract runs out, an insider revealed. 

According to the Chairman of the IMC, Honorable Gbenga Elegbeleye: “The era when players earned peanuts would soon end. The present salary structure in the domestic league is nothing to write home about. This is the reason why they go to obscure countries to play for more money. That has to stop in the next one or two seasons once we put the right structures in place". 

This prospect is excitingly unusual and indeed heartwarming. 

This confirmed the general belief that the league can attract investors and the right partners and the promise of prosperity for players and clubs is a cheering one. 

Though some have questioned the IMC decision to go into a ten-year deal knowing fully that their tenure expires in less than five months, as well the high level of secrecy in the details of the deal. 

More will be revealed as the season goes by, but for now, let's enjoy the positive vibes with good news. 

One of the consequences of such positive vibes is the declaration of a sum of 100 million nairas for the winner of the league, just like in IMC Super 4 preseason to test what to expect in the season where Shooting Stars of Ibadan went away with a cash prize of 100 million after playing just five matches at the preseason in Ikenne and Onikan, Lagos. 

In another unusual business, the body also pledge to pay match officials indemnity throughout the season as at when due as well as offset the match officials' match arrears of over 500 million nairas (in total) inherited as debt from the defunct LMC. 

3. Points deduction for crowd violence 

The IMC has stated categorically that there will be three points deduction from any teams with crowd violence as a deterrent. 

The Committee wants a violent free league and believed that fines and suspended points imposed on erring teams by the past regimes have not been effective. 

The new rule has been entrenched in the rule book for the season, though without the input of Club Owners as an association and without the approval of the congress in IMC unusual business manner and a pointer to the fact that it won't be business as usual in the league. 

4. Matches will be on TV  

The IMC has promised the matches of the 2023 NPFL will be beamed live to Nigerians through the Nigeria Television Authority, NTA. 

The IMC chairman, Elegbeleye affirmed: “We are going to ensure all the league venues are safe and TV friendly because we are going to get the matches back on television."

The body also guaranteed clean, sharp digitalized coverage of the matches as a feed company has been contracted to the job and NTA will serve the live feeds from the match centers into respective homes.

The matches can also be viewed online through other digital channels, while teams also forfeited their usual home ground for an adopted ground to ensure that good football is played on a television-friendly pitch. 

Though Total Promotions Limited has sent a caveat emptor to the NTA and others that it may concern that there is a Supreme Court order in their favor as per the coverage of the league and ask them to stay away from the coverage until all court cases are seen to a logical conclusion.

Keen watchers of the league are watching eagerly to see how the IMC will negotiate the protracted Total Promotion Limited bend.

No doubt the IMC have demonstrated that they are on a mission. 

How far they can go in accomplishing their task, the answer will be provided in a couple of months.