Dikko laments hindrance to live broadcast of NPFL Matches

Infrastructure deficit has been identified as a major reason the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) is not being broadcast on television.

Chairman of the League Management Company (LMC) Shehu Dikko told National Daily during a chat the absence of required infrastructure has made it very expensive to produce NPFL matches for live broadcast on television.

Dikko added was apparently responding to clamours by fans for matches to be seen on television from next season and revealed that it would cost as high as  N15 million to broadcast a match live in the league due to the infrastructure deficits and high foreign exchange.

The LMC Chairman noted that television generates the biggest revenue for leagues and indeed sports events but lamented that this has  been hampered in Nigeria by the huge production cost required to broadcast matches.

Making reference to what obtains in Europe, Dikko said the stadia there has been systematically developed to provide required Infrastructure for television broadcast, making it less expensive and easier for production of games.

“Television is money, without it there is no league anywhere in the world. When you go to Europe, they already have the infrastructure in the stadiums. Just walk in there, cover the matches and just send it out to distribute across media platforms that pay huge resources for the content. We don’t have such here. It is not our fault, it is not the fault of anybody, this should have been done a long time ago.

“Every stadium in Europe is plug and play. You as a camera man would just go, cameras, OB van and transmission equipment are all there. Here, you have to truck an OB  van from say Lagos to the match venue with all the logistics requirements and security, you have to cable the whole stadium, provide standby electricity, 60, 70 people have to work to cable  the stadium and cover the match.”

Dikko further stated that, even in the seasons when the league was on television, only a maximum of two games were produced and broadcast on a match day except on special occasions when the LMC fixed double-header fixtures, during which two games were played on the same venue.

He disclosed that long term objective of the LMC is to go back to the basics and work out the the framework to surmount all the identified challenges. On this Dikko declared, “a huge level of work has been done in sourcing the right partners, investments and we have even gone ahead to propose a legislation to promote and protect the football industry in order to drive it’s growth. We are hopeful that very soon television will be back and in a sustainable way”.

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