By Daily Sports on April 2, 2016

Once upon a time, the Nigeria women's football league was Africa's pace-setters for the female game, with its intense competition and excellent talent pool. The division regularly attracted top foreigners, as money was the biggest reason why the league became a big and attractive brand.  Pepsi, the division's sponsor, pumped in $160,000, which allowed players to earn good wages, and receive both allowances and signup fees, especially from 1999 to 2001. However, in the intervening years, the highly revered league, arguably Africa's finest, has become a shadow of its former self. This is surely a big reason why the national team has struggled to retain its dominance and continue to establish its reputation on the continent. The recent meetings between the NFF women's ad-hoc committee and stakeholders in Benin and Lokoja provided a platform to redefine the women's game and opened the discussion on how the NWPL can rediscover its lost lustre. Club managers, owners, fans and media representatives were in attendance at various venues to provide renewed hope of recovering the fast-fading reputation of the competition.  In the wake of the development intent on taking women’s football to the next level, there was a chat with some top stakeholders in the women's game to get their impressions on the NFF’s moves to reposition and restructure the competition.                                                                                     In a nutshell, they have thrown their weight behind the nation's footballing body as they endeavour to redefine the women's game, but also appealed for transparency and proper process.                           Here are the views of the NFF officials and selected stakeholders.                                            Babagana Kalli, NFF board member and chairman, women’s ad-hoc committee said "My committee was tasked to come out with a road map for a governance structure for the women's league. The NFF president [Amaju Pinnick] deemed it necessary to reorganize the women's league due to the success the women's national teams have brought to the country.                                                                         He believes that something must be to done to raise the standard of women's football in the country.  "What we are trying to do with governor is that the chairman will be an independent person and two independent directors, while another six directors will be representatives on the women's league board, selected from the geopolitical zones of the country. They will be the managers of the women's clubs. When the structure is put in place, people will witness a lot of changes in the organisation of the women's league". "In those two meetings that we had with the stakeholders, we have two different programmes; the sensitization programme, and the enlightenment programme on the introduction of the new structure of governance. It has become difficult for clubs in the women's league to manage their teams, considering the challenges they face that the men do not. Due to this, the NFF thought they needed to intervene and come up with strategies to reduce the challenges of the clubs in the women's league.        I've have meetings with the stakeholders, and we have told them that the NFF are not in support of an election for now. The NFF is not against board elections, but let's allow the new governance structure, which is one of the innovations of the NFF, to improve the organisational standard of the women's league. Just as have seen the great impact in the men's league, which has been rated one of the best in Africa, we want to experiment this with other football leagues in the country.                                      We will submit our report before next Thursday, and the Federation and the department of the Nigeria Women's Football League will soon resolve on the date for the women's league to kick off."                                                                                                                                     According to Moses Bako, the advocate and chairman of the Save Female Football Foundation, "It was a wonderful meeting. The steps taken by the NFF show that they want to move the women's league in Nigeria forward. We discussed a lot about taking the game forward, and when the report is submitted to the NFF, [the steps] will be implemented. For now, I don't think we need an election. We will improve the league by adopting the governance structure and taking clues from its impact on the men's league.          By the time we have an organised league, I think the sponsors will come."                                        For Matilda Otuene, team manager of Rivers Angels and chairperson of South-South Women's Football Association, "It is a welcome development to discuss and amend the rules with the sharing of a few ideas. We were able to talk about how our league can match the Premier League standard we all desire.  It is a welcome development, because we have not had this kind of forum to discuss the way forward for women's football in a long time. We should put any plans for election on hold, and let the NFF introduce the governance structure that will be able to get us sponsorship, correct the ills we have experienced in the past, and raise the reputation of the Nigeria Women's Football League.  We need individuals who can facilitate the smooth and proper organisation of the women's league."                                      Tobiloba Windapo, defender and captain of Confluence Queens said"I will be very happy if the NFF can improve the organisation and secure sponsors for the women's league.                                               A lot of us [players] have lost hope in the NFF because they don't seem to care about the women, all they care for is the men. If we have a high standard league, our good players will have no interest in leaving the country for abroad or playing for another country. I hope and pray they get it right this time, because our biggest problem has been more administrative and not technical.                                Trust me, if the administration standard of the women's football league improves, a lot of players, and even foreigners will be attracted to playing for women's clubs in Nigeria again." (goal.com)

Source Daily Sports

Posted April 2, 2016

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