By Esther Egbe
Mr Adama Idris Former Director of Marketing, Sponsorship, TV and statistics with Nigeria Football Federation told Salient Times Newspaper that he wondered that the Supporters Clubs in Nigeria are not in unity.
He asked a question ‘Why are they not United? Must they be under one umbrella with one big man as the leader before they can be united.
”Can only one body accommodate the various Sporting codes in the Nigerians sports?” How many sponsorship deals of the Federations gives a window to the Supporters Clubs to leverage in other to ensure their financial stability? For instance they are called by FIFA as “Football family”. So what are the benefits that accrued to your Football family in terms of hospitality, logistics, merchandising, security and ticketing for games and tournaments? Because we see them as major components of National Teams playing pivotal role in their successes.
He explained that ‘They are a great product for marketing, but the Federation must design exclusive windows and embedded in sponsorship deals for this component for a productive marriage. I appealed to the NSC to revisit the model and guarantee a more transparent and committed sports supporters clubs for good of our Sports.
Idris also stated that unity is just a tip of the ice-berg in the entire structure of the Nigerian Supporters Club. This is my observation of their activities over the years. I tried to ensure a robust and value added Supporters Club in 2009 by ensuring they are part of the Adidas and other Sponsorship deals to officially give them a window to be an integral part of our National Teams. And that will give room for effective regulations and monitoring including code of conduct ,but it was killed for lack of understanding of the concept.
Adama advised that uniting our Supporters Club must address the fundamental problems that directly affects their stability as a component of our Sports.
He concluded that “Our supporters club are supposed to have a representative in the National Sports Commission Board because they are an integral part of our Sports.” They are officially recognised by international governing bodies of Sports. They are the number one fans.
I led a delegation to the English FA in 2008 to understudy the commercial structure and how the English Fan is integrated into the FA revenue stream and the visibility of their brand. Believe me , it was huge, robust and productive. We were thereafter requested to review the existing structure for Nigeria and work out the modalities for similar model. But politics killed it.
