Sunshine Stars technical adviser, Kabir Dogo has said he was not surprised that Nigeria’s domestic top-flight received such a poor rating among its competitors in Africa.
African footballing body, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) recently rated Nigeria’s mainstream league outside the top eight on the continent.
The Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) was ranked ninth. According to CAF, Africa’s best leagues ranked as follows: Tunisia Ligue 1, Morocco Botola, Egyptian Premier League, Algeria Ligue 1, Congolese LinaFoot, South Africa PSL, Zambia Super League and Sudan Premier League while Guinea Ligue 1 completed the top 10 leagues.
Dogo said the fact that Nigeria’s top-flight lacks sponsorship and was not on television was a huge disadvantage when compared to its challengers.
“It was not a surprise to me because if you look at the rate of innovations in other leagues especially with the advantage of television you will agree that the prominence of our league has gone down drastically.
“The impact of television on the league cannot be overemphasised, television helps a lot to enhance and project the image of the league. The impact of sponsorship, too counts a lot and these are the areas others leagues have advantage over us.
“You remember some years back when Supersport was televising live the matches our league then was the best in Africa.
“I believe there is room for improvement on our league to inch close to other leagues. The present League Management Company (LMC) and Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) are doing well to improve the lot of the league.
“Prior to the outbreak of coronavirus and subsequent suspension of the league we were almost having one of the best seasons in terms of performance of the teams.
“Weeks into the season teams are doing remarkable well and like I said there are rooms to further improve the league to rank equal with others in the continent,” said the former Nasarawa United coach.
The former ABS FC tactician who admitted that we have qualities in our league insisted that the league body must work hard to secure sponsorship to further enhance its potentials.
“The areas the league need improvement are security, welfare of the teams/players, organisation and television.
“Television will attract sponsorship and improve interest on the league outside our shores.
“I remember my days at ABS FC when Supersport was televising live our matches then visibility and mileage we got were huge.
“Of course, we have quality players in our league. Nigerian top-flight is one of the toughest leagues in Africa, we just have to do one or two things to bring more colours to the league,” said Dogo.
The NPFL was suspended in mid-March due to the global outbreak of coronavirus with no definite decision yet on how to conclude the season.
