SuperSport at The Guardian, enumerates plans for new European season

With the 2015/16 European football league season set to begin tomorrow, leading multi-sport channel, SuperSport, has promised to once again bring to the Nigerian football fans every moment of the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A, among others.

Speaking during a courtesy visit with The Guardian’s Rutam Houses offices on Tuesday, Marketing Manager, SuperSport West Africa, Chidozie Bede Nwokoye, said the sport channel was committed to satisfying Nigerians’ appetite for good football. He revealed that the organisation would host fans of the various clubs, particularly in the English Premier League (EPL) and Spanish La Liga, during the opening game of the English Premiership between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur at the Landmark Event Centre, Oniru Victoria Island, Lagos.

Also in the SuperSport team were former Super Eagles forward, Victor Ikpeba, who is now one of the channel’s analysts, and Ojeikere Glover Aikhoje, also an analyst on the channel.

“It is another major football season, and we consider it necessary to visit our media partners to create a better atmosphere of synergy in bring the leagues, which begins on Saturday, August 8 to the fans,” Nwokoye said.

He revealed that football lovers in Nigeria could get the stadia experience of all the matches on DStv with the Explora Decoder, adding, “with your DSTV Explora, you can rewind, pause, fast-forward and record the live matches and other sporting actions without missing any of the moments.”

Nwokoye also revealed that the League Management Committee (LMC) was working hard to turn the Nigerian league around, adding that the league now has a new direction.

“A lot is happening behind the scene and if it continues that way, the league in the next five years will be competing with major leagues of the world,” he said.

While welcoming the team, the Editor, Sunday Guardian, Mr. Abraham Ogbodo noted that everybody was waiting for the season to commence, adding that the beauty of the league and the matches was the analysis, particularly at the viewing centres and bars.

According to Ogbodo, football is a big economy with enormous business prospective, but it is disheartening and appalling for foreign leagues and clubs to be attracting huge followership in Nigeria, when compared to Nigeria’s own league and club sides.

“The administrators should make the business to grow. The problem is that in Nigeria, government is the biggest spender, as such it assumes tripartite role as regulator, administrator and participant. Government should hands off the business of football and allow private investors/managers to manage the sector.

“The Nigerian league should be taken to some level of standard where it can measure and command similar high attraction like the developed leagues in Europe.

“In the past, we had clubs like Bendel Insurance, New Nigerian Bank, Stationery Stores, and Enugu Rangers, which all commanded huge followership and fans,” he added.