By Ikeddy Isiguzo
IT will not be long before the furore over the death of Emmanuel Ogoli of Bayelsa United is forgotten. Soon he will become only a reference when another league death occurs. There are precedents, too numerous to recount.

What can change our ways if Sam Okwaraji’s death on 12 August 1989 could not? Amir Angwe, a 29 year old Julius Berger player, died of a heart attack on 29 October 1995 in a continental club engagement.

The noise died before the dead was buried.

Other deaths have included referees who passed on during the Cooper Test, a fitness examination for referees. Some teams have lost players in road accidents that were avoidable, if players’ welfare necessitated better transportation for teams.

All these point to insincerity and the Nigerian’s readiness to keep challenges at bay until they assume proportions that damage everything around them.

Those familiar with the origins of the Nigerian football league will know that the problems of the league (the deaths are only a manifestation of a few of them) started 20 years ago when the professional league began.

Everything that was proposed was discarded with time. Teams were to have their own stadium by 2000, 10 years from commencement of the league. To date, only a few have their own stadia and some of them can hardly pass for more than playgrounds.

All teams were to be limited liability companies. Most of them are appendages of state sports councils, if they are owed by governments, or a unit of the business of a private owner. They do not have their own accounts, nor financial records that are audited and submitted to the league board as the rules in 1990 stated.

Things are so bad in this direction that when Enyimba, easily one of the country’s most prominent clubs this century, won the CAF Champions League, it claimed it had no account in its name into which the prize money could be paid. CAF was embarrassed.

In 1990, teams were to sign contracts with each player and team official. The contracts were to be submitted to the league as the main document if matters fall into arbitration. Many clubs do not have contracts with their players, not to mention insurance that was also mandatory.

The league, in terms of professionalism, is worse today than it was at inception. The league has become a lot of noise without substance. Players’ welfare is a footnote on the long list of concerns of team owners, whose major interest lies in getting their fingers on whatever money sponsors pay teams.

Medical provisions for teams was part of the expectations 20 years ago. Teams were to have medical insurance covers for players and officials. Some of the documents that teams had to lay before the league board at the beginning of each season was medical insurance for their teams.

The league board does not enforce these provisions. The early eclipse of league rules with Act (Decree) 101 laid more emphases on government controlling football, as it still does, than in the league running professionally.

Early advocates of the professional league like Chief Nathaniel Idowu (late) called a meeting in January 1984 (in the midst of the military take over that aborted four years of civil rule) to discuss professional football.

Promoters of the meeting in an Ikeja hotel, on Awolowo Way , now a residential apartment, were more visionary than the managers of the league today. If the league would have advanced if it ran with their suggestions and the recommendations of the committee that drew up the document that formed the kennel of Decree 10 on which the professional league was formed.

Deaths of players produce emotional outpourings that neglect the sources of these problems and overlook more major concerns. There are more profound issues in the league.

The league is dying. Its revival lies in a reform that will be sweeping, if it is to make a difference. The league today is primed to keep killing our players, signing of multi-billion Naira sponsorship deals will not make the difference.

We are either determined to see the league grow or let it die. There are no further rooms for pretences. Ogoli’s death is probably a reminder that we have run out of time and a chance for us to show how important the league is to us.
Sponsors Tango

MY comments on the MTN-Glo tango for the league sponsorship will have to wait now the matter is subjudice. We can only hope both parties come to a quick resolution in the interest of the game. This dispute re-states the well-known point that the league property is more important than the Nigeria Premiership League board realises.

However this goes, let justice be done to all parties.

Please email comments, condemnations, or commendations to ikeddyisiguzo@hotmail.com