Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) has made a case for players in the league to be involved in Super Eagles to stimulate aspirations of players to stay in the country rather than seeking clubs outside.
The plea was one of the high points of the communique reached at the inaugural NPFL Board and Staff retreat in Abuja which was graced by the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Ibrahim Gusau in Abuja on Wednesday, 29 November, 2023.
During the interactive session between the Board members and Staff, it was observed that the NPFL must create heroes to attract fans in larger numbers to the stadium.
“It is recommended that the NPFL Board will reach out to the NFF with a recommendation that NPFL players must be included in future call-ups to improve their confidence and quality of play”, it was stated.
Gusau, who declared the retreat open, commended the NPFL Board for the bold plan to reposition the league, said the NFF will back every forward looking proposition to add value to make the competitive and attract investors and Sponsors to grow domestic football.
“I came here today to lend support to this novel idea of changing the narratives about Nigerian football and will challenge the NPFL Board to extend this to also having a resource session with the Clubs”, Gusau said in his address.
Explaining his call to extend the retreat to clubs officers, the NFF President most of the issues that the NPFL deals with are related to activities of the clubs as they are the major centres for showcasing the good and bad of the league.
“I am always available to support initiatives that will change the narratives about our league”, Gusau assured the gathering of the hierarchy of the NPFL Board members and staff.
In his address, the NPFL Chairman said the purpose of the retreat was to achieve multipurpose objective of reviewing the last season’s performance with a view to improving observed lapses and building on the successful aspects.
Elegbeleye listed a number of developments in the season which includes the securing of television deals on two platforms, the Over The Top (OTT) with Propel Sports Africa and Direct To Home (DTH) signed with StarTimes.
“This retreat is to provide us a cordial forum for the Board and Staff to rub minds without inhibitions and to have first hand knowledge of how the Board can intervene to improve processes to achieve more than we have done so far”, explained the NPFL Chairman.
