One of the main challenges for domestic football leagues in Africa is the overwhelming popularity of European football and clubs amongst African fans. As a result of the popularity these European clubs enjoy, it has become commonplace to see local companies seek sponsorship and brand association deals with these clubs in a bid to leverage their popularity in the local market. Across the continent, there are many instances of African teams forging commercial links with European clubs. Algeria’s Ooredoo has a deal with Real Madrid while Nigeria’s Globacom has a multi-country partnership with Manchester United as do Chi Limited. Arsenal, have an existing contract with Sterling Bank and have enjoyed commercial links with telecommunications company, Airtel.
However, the League Management Company of the domestic football league in Nigeria has announced that it is in the process of attempting to ensure that this trend is reversed and its method of choice is through the country’s legislature.The body announced that it is working on a legislation which it hopes will put an end to Nigerian firms agreeing sponsorship contracts with foreign clubs. According to the League Management Company, the legislation will, on the long term, be geared towards redirecting the flow of sponsorship money from foreign football to domestic football.
The League Management Company says it will work Nigeria’s football governing body, the Nigeria Football Federation as well as the National Sports Commission in a bid to get the National Assembly to push the legislation which will make it compulsory for local companies to remit percentages of their sponsorship deals with foreign companies to the domestic league.
The League Management Company chairman, Shehu Dikko, has insisted on the need to push the legislation forward as he suggests earning percentages from foreign sponsorship deals could help boost growth of domestic football in the country.
“Our biggest challenge is the struggle for the hearts of our fans and the proliferation of European football on television and promotion of foreign clubs contents by Nigerian companies,” he said. “The intrusion of these broadcasts has made it more expensive to go to the stadium as just about 50 naira can get the average fan into a viewing centre to see the foreign leagues and we are saying they should pay development grants in the form of solidarity payments to us as they do to the lower leagues in their country,” he added.
Right motive, wrong move?
The position of the League Management Company is quite simply unconventional. It is heartwarming that the body is focused on developing its leagues but attempting to engineer revenue by compulsion is an unpleasant way to go about it. In open markets, companies reserve the right to decide what brands they want to deal with commercially. Making it mandatory by law that companies remit percentages of their sponsorship deals with foreign clubs to domestic leagues is a haphazard way of seeking to grow revenues for the domestic leagues. Going down this route also defeats the logic to gaining credible and lucrative sponsorship. The very nature of sponsorship deals is symbiotic as companies offer money in exchange for the leverage that the strength of a club’s brand can offer. In that light, seemingly forcing companies to sponsor domestic football in Nigeria seems a desperate move.
The long road to earning the growth and revenue which the domestic league craves will be to focus on internal development- better infrastructure, better facilities, professional officiating, wider range of broadcast and consistent welfare packages for footballers. This will see the league enjoy consistent, organic and credible growth as opposed to seeking to compel corporate firms to remit percentages.
