Nigeria: Shock Greets Globacom’s Premier League Sponsorship Rip Off

The Moment (London)

Oladipo Okubanjo

16 July 2011

SHOCK, disbelief and anger have trailed the decision by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to trade away all the properties and brands of the nation’s soccer ruling body to telecommunication company, Globacom Nigeria Limited, for the sum of N1.8 billion.

The immediate past Chairman of the Nigerian Premier League (NPL), Oyuki Obaseki, described the deal as scandalous and a gross undervaluation of the country’s football properties.

Similarly, a marketing expert, Dr. Ken Onyeali Ikpe, sneered at the development, but noted that perhaps, the agreed sponsorship fee was the current value of what was on offer.

The NFF had few days ago hugged the headlines revealing that it had signed a five-year partnership deal worth nearly N1.8 billion with Globacom.

The deal, said the Aminu Maigari-led NFF, more than doubles the previous contract between the football body and Globacom, which was worth N150 million annually.

The new deal, it further disclosed, will see the sponsor reclaim title rights to all categories of the National Teams, become presenting sponsors of the Federation Cup as well as the National First Division, which is the country’s second tier of domestic football, the Women’s League and the Amateur League.

Globacom, according to NFF’s Head of Marketing Idris Adama, will pay the federation a fixed sum of N350 million per year for the first three years of the contract, with 10 per cent increase in the last two years. The contract, it was gathered, includes a provision to facilitate the organisation of two international friendly matches every year.

Speaking in a telephone interview with The Moment on Friday, Obaseki lamented that the NFF had sold its lucrative football properties cheaply to Globacom.

“It is a shame that those saddled with the responsibility of protecting the interest of football in this country are its worst enemy,” he said. “I am ashamed. N1.8 billion for eight properties – the Super Eagles, the Olympic Eagles, the Flying Eagles, the Under-17, the Super Falcons, National League and Women’s League. They also included the Federations Cup for N350 million a year.”

Globacom, Obaseki said, must be very happy for acquiring those properties for next to nothing. He attributed development to the lack of a competitive bid.

“I believe it would have been different if the NFF had made it open by allowing other interested companies to put in their bids,” he said.

Dr. Ikpe, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Mediacom, described the sponsorship fee as meagre but, “it could be the right figure in the present circumstance”.

“I believe both the sponsor and owner of the brands must have done their home work before coming to the table; there must have been a process of valuation.

“If you convert N1.8 billion to the dollar, what we are talking about is just $118 million. The football association in Brazil or England will not trade their national teams, a single brand for that figure.

“So, it depends on who was dealing with who, who sat at the table with Globacom to market these brands,” said Ikpe.

Globacom, it would be recalled, had since last year when its initial contract with the NFF expired, refused to sign a new deal ostensibly because it had lost sponsorship rights to rival telecommunication firm MTN, albeit in controversial circumstance.

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