‘We want to prioritize putting NPL on and prompt payment prize’- Elegbeleye

The head of Nigeria Football League (NFL) management committee Gbenga Elegbeleye has reiterated the body determination to ensure matches are television from the 2023/24 season and prompt payment of prize money.

 “The NPL is going to be on television, we know we have had that before but it was on and off, on and off.

So what assurance are you giving to us, that this coming season, that the NPL is going to be on TV, that anybody can have access to watch any of their teams from the beginning to the end?

 “Well like I told you earlier, its about, let me call it leadership medicine, when you have people around you and you know they are intelligent, members of IMC are also intelligent, they are those we know ourselves over the years, we know what it takes to run good administration, and we don't want to soil our names, we have our credibility to protect, we know that in the previous years of promising N50 million as winner of the league, they never pay anybody, Plateau United won years ago and they didn't pay them, the last winner Rivers United they didn't pay up till date, but we resolved on our own that we want to even double the N50 million to N100 million and we paid, we want to give Nigerians and the rest of the world, to have absolute trust in our league system, show absolute trust in our football league system, to give credibility into the system.

We paid Enyimba the week we finished, we paid 100 million naira the same week, they didn't believe it.

“When we started, we had a pre- season tournament, that we would give 100 million naira to the winner, the four teams we called, we would give them 10,10 million naira, people started writing  rubbish, saying Audio money, it's a lie they cannot do it, meanwhile when they started seeing that, even before we started  the four teams have received their N10 million , then they kept quite and said how will they pay 100 million naira and where will they get it?

By the time we finished 3FC Ibadan won it, Bendel insurance was there, 3SC was there, Rangers was there, Enyimba was there, so 3SC won it.

They now saw that, when 3SC won it, the same week we paid the N100 million, those naysayers they kept quiet. Now again, I even announced that when we start we are going to give each club N10 million, that is N200 million naira, it has never happened before”.