LMC confirms December 27 as start date for new NPFL season

The League Management Company (LMC) has confirmed
December 27 as the commencement date for the Nigeria Professional
Football League (NPFL) 2020/2021 season.

The league organizer said the commencement date was arrived at
after consultations with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), the
participating football clubs of the NPFL and Redstrike Media Group
UK, the NPFL commercial rights holders, and strategic commercial
partners of the LMC.

The Federal Government through the Federal Minister of Youth and
Sports Development was also briefed in this regard which included
steps to be taken to ensure full compliance with the mandatory
COVID-19 Protocols.

LMC said that the absolute need to ensure appropriate compliance
with the club’s licensing regulations among other regulatory
requirements resulted in the delay in commencing the league as
envisaged.

However, the LMC Chairman, Shehu Dikko said huge progress has
been made especially in the areas of the infrastructure upgrade,
noting that the support of the NFF and the Minister of Youth and
Sport Development has been critical in attaining this level of
compliance.

He further stated that, “In line with the core objectives of the
LMC-Redstrike partnership, which is to repackage and reposition the
NPFL as one of the best football leagues on all parameters,
Redstrike Group has engaged a reputable and experienced production
company from Europe, which will deploy state of the art facilities
and other equipment for the television production of matches and
activities of the NPFL to meet world class standards.

He added that the production company will be working with other
domestic agencies that has capacity to deliver media contents of
NPFL activities.

“This will enable the NPFL, in line with the best international
benchmarks, to have full control of its content to be distributed,
marketed and monetized across all platforms such as OTT, Mobile,
Free to Air and Cable TV to ensure the widest coverage that can
generate appropriate revenues to the NPFL”.

“The detailed and impressive production preparations have seen
the assembling and engagement of very many Nigerians, technicians
and other highly skilled football industry professionals”

“These  preparations include the development of
the NPFL.TV App, an OTT platform/channel for streaming
the NPFL matches, which will also house all the apps of the
individual NPFL clubs and provide the best possible fan engagement
among others”.

The NPFL.TV app have since been made available for
download on Google Play Store and will soon be on Apple Store.

In a related development, participating clubs of NPFL have been
assured of a robust  revenue distribution with the minimum
guaranteed revenue/payment from the LMC-Redstrike Partnership to
ensure commercial stability, operations, sustainability and success
of the league.

The LMC Chairman noted that the partnership “will also guarantee
other stakeholders of NPFL, including match officials and services
providers of a much improved and, or sustained indemnity and
professional remuneration as part of the measures to improve
standards across the football league industry value chain”.

Continuing, Dikko declared that “on  the back of the
LMC-Redstrike partnership, the NPFL will now see the return of
performance incentive payments to NPFL participating clubs such as,
Basic Award (Guaranteed payments for participation),
Technical/Performance Award (payments earned based on milestones
achieved by clubs), Merit Award (Prize Monies distributed to clubs
based on final position on the league table at the end of season)
and Parachute Payments (to support clubs relegated from the NPFL in
the previous season)”.

This season, the LMC has proposed Prize monies for the top three
finishing positions for the 2020/2021 season as N75m for the
Winner, N50m for the first Runner Up and N35m for the Third paced
team. Other Clubs will also earn prize monies based on final
position on the league table.

The LMC says other programs and branding strategies to increase
the excitement value of the league will be unveiled in due course.
These includes, the return of bonuses to clubs for Away Wins, Away
Draws, getting more than 5000 fans for home matches, featuring U-18
Youth Players, Stadium maintenance support etc.

“There’s no doubt that exciting times lie ahead for all football
lovers in Nigeria who have long yearned to have matches and
activities of NPFL made readily available to them by streaming and
broadcast on other platforms, including traditional TV”, Dikko
remarked.

He said the LMC is assuring millions of football fans in Nigeria
that their patience will very soon be rewarded with a repackaged
NPFL, whose exciting football matches and activities they can view
and follow anytime and anywhere on
the NPFL.TV Platform.

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