LMC Solicits Government Support For Stadium Facility Upgrade

The League Management Company (LMC) said its operations have been wholly funded from privately generated income and zero government financial contribution.

LMC Chairman, Shehu Dikko, disclosed this and other initiatives of the league body when he appeared as guest on Africa Independent Television (AIT) morning show, Kaakaki and explained that the LMC would love to see government involved in the area of infrastructure upgrade while gradually divesting from club funding.

“Since the LMC came on board, our funding has been sourced from commercial partnerships, which is the practice globally and while we appreciate the companies that have bought rights from us, we are still not where we should be financially which explains our recent visit with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to the Nigeria Stock Exchange,” Dikko said on the programme.

Continuing on government’s role in football, the LMC Chairman said “in the 1990s, the government of Margaret Thatcher in the UK provided over £200m for the upgrading of stadia facilities across England and that contributed critically to what we have today as the best League in the world, and today the UK Government is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the EPL, generating billions of pounds in taxes.”