It is finally the week we have been waiting for since the resumption date for the new Nigeria Premier Football League season was announced at the end of last campaign. There have been preseason tournaments, terminated contracts, player movements, training and retraining, reorientations, rumours, announcements and all the other activities that usually tell us another football season is around the corner. After all the waiting, the football itself is finally about to return.
In a few days, the first match of the new season will give us a Southwest derby between Shooting Stars, returning to continental football after a long absence, and newly promoted Inter Lagos. That first whistle will formally signal the return of competitive NPFL football and, like supporters across the country, we have been waiting for it. Enyimba fans will have to wait a little longer before seeing the People’s Elephant back at the Elephant Park, however, because our own journey begins with a trip to Minna to face Niger Tornadoes.
But while we count down to Matchday One, I still find myself wondering how we are preparing to begin another season with some important questions yet to receive clear answers.
Top of my list is broadcasting. A football league cannot seriously talk about growing its audience while supporters remain unsure whether they will be able to watch their own teams. Yes, there is an arrangement to broadcast at least one match every week on television, and we got a glimpse of what that looked like last season. The coverage, however, appeared limited in reach, immediately raising questions about supporters outside the areas where the service was readily available.
Then there was Propel Sports, a partnership that arrived with plenty of promise but never quite became what many expected. Eventually, the league leadership announced the termination of that arrangement after the company failed to deliver according to expectations.
Now we have Murphy Ben International, MBI, entering the picture.
Previous broadcast partnerships with StarTimes and Propel Sports came with fairly clear announcements about their duration and ambitions, even though both arrangements ultimately encountered problems. With the present setup, there still appears to be more uncertainty than there should be this close to kickoff. The weekly television match is understandable because we saw the model last season, but supporters still need clarity on the wider streaming arrangement.
How many matches will actually be available? Where exactly will supporters watch them? Will coverage be available consistently throughout the season? How easy will it be for an Enyimba supporter in Lagos, Abuja, London or anywhere else to follow the team when travelling to Aba or Minna is impossible?
These are not unreasonable questions. Watching your football club should not require detective work every weekend.
The second issue is match venues. From everything we have seen so far, the preferred grounds of the 20 participating clubs appear to have received approval in one form or another. Abia Warriors will temporarily use Aba, Rangers will begin away from their traditional home, Niger Tornadoes are ready to welcome us in Minna, while the rest of the league prepares to open its doors.
Hopefully, every approval followed a proper inspection rather than the usual Nigerian tradition of discovering problems only after the season has started.
We have seen enough instances where a stadium begins a campaign as an approved NPFL venue and suddenly becomes unsuitable a few months later. Sometimes clubs are ordered elsewhere midway through the season, supporters are displaced and everyone starts asking questions that probably should have been answered before Matchday One.
If a pitch, dressing room, medical facility, security arrangement or any other requirement does not meet the necessary standard, now is the time to identify it. A stadium should not pass an inspection in August only for everybody to discover by November that football should never have been played there in the first place.
Then there is the reported three-year title sponsorship deal worth around $7.5 million.
If that figure and agreement are eventually confirmed as reported, it represents significant commercial progress for the NPFL. A proper title sponsor brings more than money; it can provide credibility, visibility and potentially greater value for the clubs themselves. But with kickoff almost upon us, supporters are still waiting for the identity of the sponsor and the finer details of the arrangement.
Who is putting their name behind the league? When does the partnership formally begin? What exactly does it cover? What benefits flow directly to the clubs? And how will it coexist with the other commercial arrangements already surrounding the competition?
Again, these are not questions being asked merely for the sake of complaining. If the NPFL wants to position itself as a serious commercial product, then clarity around major commercial partnerships should be part of that professionalism.
None of these uncertainties should take away from the excitement of what is coming. The preseason games are almost history, training-ground experiments will soon give way to competitive football, and every promise made over the past few months will finally meet the unforgiving reality of ninety minutes.
That is the beautiful thing about the start of a new season. Everybody begins from zero. Last season’s champions have no points. The team that barely survived has no points. The newly promoted clubs have no points. For one brief moment, everybody can dream whatever dream they want.
Then the whistle blows.
For Enyimba, the journey starts in Minna. For the NPFL, it begins with 20 clubs chasing different objectives but ultimately staring at the same trophy. For us, the expectation is familiar: start well, build momentum, remain competitive and make sure that when the important end of the season arrives, we are discussing trophies and continental football rather than survival mathematics.
The countdown is almost finished.
Now we need the broadcasters ready, the stadiums ready, the organisers ready and, most importantly, Enyimba ready.
Because once that first whistle goes, nobody gets to hide behind preseason anymore.
Ready. Set. Go.
And when Matchday 38 arrives, may we be counting down to a championship celebration.
EnyimbaEnyi
