The Nigeria Premier Football League has reaffirmed that, following more than six years without the league being televised on television, the N6 billion broadcast rights agreement it inked with StarTimes was the greatest bargain it could have negotiated.
This was said by the league’s head, Gbenga Elegbeleye, in reaction to a report claiming that the NPFL turned down a $11 million offer from a different company.
“When the Interim Management Committee, which I headed came on board, there was not a single sponsorship for the league, but we later got an investment partner in GTI that guaranteed N1bn for the season,” Elegbeleye stated.
“It is on record that the last effective broadcast partnership the NPFL had was with SuperSport and it was terminated in 2016. Thereafter the league went on without a proper broadcast partner until we signed Propel Sports Africa for streaming and shortly after StarTimes for Direct to Home Satellite Broadcast.
“These deals were not signed overnight but took painstaking negotiations that lasted for months because we wanted to make sure it was the right thing to do.”
He said the NPFL had from the onset insisted that it was open to offers and actually knocked on the doors of several corporate organisations for sponsorship of the league.
“We spent time and personal resources travelling to court Corporate Nigeria to sponsor the league with our investment partners, GTI, and we invested in efforts to rebrand the league. A consultant was hired for venue branding, which offers in-stadium exposure to our potential sponsors and a website was also built for viral exposure. So, where was this phantom $11m briefcase offer at the time”, the NPFL chairman stated.
He added that the IMC wooed SuperSport with a view to bringing the South African broadcast outfit back to the NPFL.
“We couldn’t have rejected any offer when we were practically seeking to entice SuperSport back, to the extent that we succeeded in bringing them to broadcast the 2022/23 Super 6 Playoff.
“The NPFL is still very much open to listen to offers of partnership in other areas from well-meaning and credible sports marketing companies,” Elegbeleye said.
