MOSHOOD ISAH
Early this year, Forbes magazine released the annual list of the world richest football clubs and again, almost the same set of clubs dominates the top ten lists. Spanish giants, Real Madrid and Barcelona Football Club top the list with the total worth of $3.26 billion and $3.17 billion respectively. While Real Madrid boasts of yearly revenue of $746m, their Spanish rivals generated a total of $657m in 2015. Other clubs like Manchester United of England, Football Club of Bayern Munich based in Germany, Manchester City Football Club, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool all from England can boast of turnovers running into hundreds of millions of dollars with their total worth clocking over a billion dollars.
The funds are usually generated through participation fee from the Football Association or the league organisers, television right deals, kits sponsorship, advertisement and other forms of financial endorsements. For instance, the English Premier League handed out a £1.6billion to English top flight teams in 2014/15 league season. Chelsea’s Premier League title success earned them £99million in total prize money according to official figures which is the most ever earned by a single club in one season from central funds. The precise eye-watering sum was £98,999,554, made up of £24.9m ‘merit’ cash for finishing top of the table, £19.98m ‘facility fees’ for being in so many live TV games, plus equal shares of the domestic TV deal (nearly £22m), overseas TV deals (£27.8m) and commercial income from the leagues sponsors, such as Barclays (£4.4m). Manchester City were second in the table and are second in the cash league with £98.5m, but Manchester United are the next highest earners (£96.8m) despite finishing fourth because they were live on TV more than third-placed Arsenal, who are fourth in the money table with £96.5m.
In contrast, Enyimba Football Club who was champions of the recently concluded Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) was rewarded with $404,040 [four hundred and four thousand and forty dollars (N80million)] by the League Management Company (LMC). Chairman of the LMC, Alhaji Shehu Dikko, also confirmed that each participating club received at least N55 million. Each club is also entitled to N200,000 for pitch maintenance monthly. Dikko also revealed that the N80 million prize money represented over 200 percent increase of what the league winners received for 2014. The LMC chairman also said the league management now pays N250,000 which is equivalent of $1,262 for wining away matches and N100,000 or $505 bonus for away draws. There are also additional incentives for clubs who are able to attract up to 5,000 fans to the stadium to support their team on match days. “These are part of our work to ensure that the league comes back highest and be one of the best in the world”, Alhaji Dikko concluded.
The business of football and sports generally has continued to flourish in Europe, perhaps mainly due to adequate management of the clubs which are usually private owned. As a matter of fact, virtually all the clubs in England and other parts of Europe are privately owned. For instance, Arsenal FC is owned by businessmen in sport enterprises and other investors in metal mining, steel and energy. The same goes for Roman Abramovich who runs Chelsea Football Club from his oil industry business. Many other clubs are dominated by investors from abroad unlike the situation in Nigeria where virtually all the clubs in the Professional Football League are owned by state governments. According to a fan of Ibadan’s Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC), the solution to the club’s woes and to the problems of all Nigerian football clubs lie in privatisation. According to another fan of privatisation, 19 of 20 teams in the top division are owned by state governments. A third respondent bemoaned what he called “socialism” in Nigerian football.
Historically, clubs owned by private corporations rose to the top of the division system, powered by infusions of cash. The same was true of clubs owned by government parastatals (i.e. government-owned corporations). A retail chain bankrolled Leventis United of Ibadan to league and cup wins. A parastatal cement company funded BCC (Benue Cement Company) Lions of Gboko to continental glory. At some point, teams funded by banks like, First Bank, New Nigerian Bank were among the best competitors in the top two divisions. Then there were also teams run by wealthy individuals like Bashorun Moshood Abiola who owned Abiola Babes and Emmanuel Iwuanyawu who owned Iwuanyanwu Nationale. The two who were both at the apex of Nigerian football at some point in time.
Indeed, the state-government-owned clubs endure over the long term precisely because the states are at no risk of going bankrupt because of their football clubs unlike the privately owned clubs who are struggling to remain in the mainstream. This is obviously due to inadequate or lack of sponsorship deals and other sources of revenue like stadium entrance fees and the likes. The objective of corporate sponsorship was aptly captured in a speech by Peter Amangbo, the former Managing Director of Zenith Bank, during his interaction with the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). He had said, “You are on the right path, with your attitude, determination and openness of mind. Once people see transparency, they will want to identify with you. Companies support sports in order to derive value. Football is big business and millions of people can be employed across the several value chains.” Companies like Chivita preferred to invest in a club in England despite the product being widely known in Nigeria than England. As a matter of fact, the contents of their advertisement is hardly on the shelf in Britain. This may not be unconnected to the lack of sufficient information available to business community not just on operations of the Nigerian league but also on the existing and potential opportunities, a Nigerian Football Federation official explained.
In a bid to improve football sponsorship in Nigeria, the League Management Company (LMC) took a major step in a strategic initiative aimed at sensitizing corporate organisations about opportunities in the Nigeria Professional Football League. The aim is to expand the revenue generating capacity of the 20 clubs in the league through sponsorship, partnership or other forms of affiliations.
The discussions also explored the possibilities of enlisting NPFL clubs that will meet capital market requirements in the Nigeria Stock Exchange as a means of expanding their capital base and impact positively on the operations of the club as well as make Nigerian club football attractive. The LMC Chairman also called for legislation to levy sponsorship of European leagues by Nigerian companies for the accelerated development of the local league. He said the LMC was desirous to have Nigerians buy into the ownership of the clubs in the League and solicited the support of the Nigerian Stock Exchange chieftains in this regard. “We have a strategic proposition that seeks to pool potential commercial partners for all the 20 clubs with a partner assigned to a club and the LMC will offer across board benefits on its platforms to all the sponsors who in turn will be expected to work with their club partners to develop opportunities for mutual benefits”, the LMC Chairman said.
Meanwhile the title sponsorship rights of the Nigeria Premier League by Telecommunication giants, Globacom has expired at the end of 2015. While promising to raise the standard of the league, the management urged stakeholders of the game to intensify their support in raising the standard of the domestic league.
