Football has always been part of me – LMC Chairman

NFF’s 2nd VP and LMC NPFL Chairman Shehu Dikko who has been named ‘The Sun Newspaper’ Sports Personality of the year 2016 who also bagged Nigerian Sports Award  as Special Recognition Award.The man who has change the face of Nigeria league spoke with Esther Egbe recently about how he got into Sports Administration and more.

Let’s begin this way, who really is Mallam Shehu Dikko?

Well, this is the lost most difficult question I ever want to answer as I find it really tough talking about myself.But Shehu Dikko is from Zaria, Kaduna State, 47 yrs old  and have first degree in Quantity Surveying, MA cost Engineering, PGD in Management (marketing), MBA in finance and several professional courses including a certificate from IOD, London in football development and Strategy.I started  working as student  trainee in 1988 with a firm of Charted quantity surveyors and full time work in 1992 with the same firm. I set up my own quantity surveying and project management firm in 1997.Currently, I run a project development, investment and finance firm with interests in infrastructure, real estate, energy, agriculture, project management and PPP Projects and we had different diverse projects we are working on.
I am also a co-owner directory in several companies including some media companies.
For over two decades I have been highly privilege on an professional level to have been involve is several interesting and important projects that have shaped me to be what I am today .
All through this years of my professional life I have always been part of football from local, states , national and international levels and I have been in the main stream since 2000 with huge contribution at all levels .I am Married since 1998 and have 5 children.

How and when did you venture into sports and football business? What prompted your plunge and great interest?

Well, all my life right from childhood I have always been into footbal. I will you as far as I can remember, the first money I was giving while growing up I went straight to the shop to buy a football.

I was so into football along with my brothers that it’s affecting my schooling concentration so a football field was created within our house so all the kids comes to play on our house and from them I become the team Manager and everything as per running the football… and that is how we grow up as our house both in kaduna and Zaria is the hub of football all because of me in school it was the same .So I can say I grow up with football all over my life.
One of the biggest memories of I have of my mother is the way she always pull me aside to say please my soon go face your books and when you grow up you can be the football administrator and so this has been my biggest motivation.To me football is simply life and any other things is merely details.So football is just in my blood I can say.Going forward, one of your earliest contributions to the development of football in Nigeria was your 2002 article in Complete Football magazine. It was voted the Complete Football article of the year.

Looking back 14 years today with you as the Football Federation’s Second Vice President, how well would you say have we fared as a footballing nation? How much more is left to be done?

Well, that article I wrote in 2002 is what brought me into the forefront and got notice and was invited to be advised on strategy to NFF and as they said the rest is history.And sincerely, I didn’t wrote the article for publication but like a personal response to Mumini Alao on how we can turn out football especially league football for the better. Mumini went ahead to published it without ever knowing who I was talking to me and it set the stage for useful conversation.
Unfortunately, I think that article is still valid today though we have made huge of progress but some of the progress were either truncated and or stalled but we are getting back on track now
That article was part of what drive the formation of the independent league in nigeria as it shows the potential and we use it as guide to do a lot but the problem that engulfed the premier league from 2009/2010 stalled the progress.But we back on track gradually I believe.

A lot is said and has been written today about Players Welfare in terms of receiving deserved entitlements and wages to players, coaches and sundry staff?

The LMC has shown a lot of improvement in developing our league. Why has it not been able to deal with players and coaches welfare issues. with the content of your 2003 blueprint for minimum welfare standards for nigerian players.Well, to start with I am proud to say as far back as 2002/2003 I was a member of nff (NFA) then Players welfare and arbitration committee and we did a huge work then resolving players issues and upon my realization of the problem I did drafted in 2003 a document title standard welfare packages for Nigerian players where we work to documents the minimum welfare packages for players including even support for their education.So really I know the problem and been highly interested in seeing we eliminate all issues to do with players welfare.. indeed I have been a big support of players Union  for many years so they can perform the role in support of players effectively.. that is why I am a patron of the players union.However, the current issue is not about LMC or nff not enforcing players welfare but we trying to work within the reality on ground and set out strategy to eliminate the issue completely.

To start, it’s a reality that most clubs are own by Government and we are in nigeria today where even the government are in default paying salaries so likely they may owe clubs and we always know Govt is never bankrupt and can always pay so we always tried to put pressure on the government to pay rather that pushing them away as that would not make them pay and it’s the players that would still suffer at the end.Also, we have passed level of clubs receiving funds for players and not paying and so anywhere up hear clubs owning it’s because govt has not paid,so really going to punish clubs heavily on this may end being double jeopardy for the players.So our objectives is is work always to get the govt to pay of they owe and also working to get more sponsors and investment into the league to take away this clubs from govt.. and or at least part off.For example even if one deduct points from a club no one is hurt and it’s the player that would see their sweat going down.But we will keep doing all that we can to resolve this issue on a permanent basis.But the biggest problem mostly comes from the players and coaches themselves? How? They go sign contracts without advisers and only run to us when they get into problems? A player or coach has no business going about chasing money but rather his lawyer and or intermediary should be doing that and believe me even the clubs would sit up.In the players contracts we have standard clauses that allows the player to walk away for free is he owed for a certain period and thus anyone that chose to stay after that has only himself to blame.. this season many players tried to activate this clauses and their issues were resolved quickly and or the club sold them to another clubs i.e Ezenwa.
We are already working with NASD stock exchange to take some 8 clubs as pilots to see if we can GT investors to be part of them as part of drive to bring in needed revenues to the clubs to resolve  this issues.

You advocated and wrote about a Pension Welfare scheme for players in 2003. Today as NFF Second Vice President and LMC boss in 2015, Taraba FC participated in the Premier League when Taraba playing staff severally sought LMC interventions on their employers’ failure to pay their wages; how would you react to news of these players losing children and relatives and have now resorted to living on the Streets in front of the Taraba State Government House?

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Well, the TARABA case was really bad and huge embarrassment to all and should never had happened in the first place but one has to understand why that happened.
The Taraba state has like 3 or for regime change within a one and half years and this led to many administrative changes within the state which invariably affected the cash flow to the club.

What is the plans for security of life and property for fans that come to various stadia?

Hoodlums often have a field day in many venues and security of mobile devices like phones or cash or even fans vehicles, for example are often at the prospective spectator’s risk.
Beyond the hackneyed we would try our best,” what specific collaborations has the LMC gone into with the security agencies?

At the the height of the problem I had interface with the Governor and the chief of state and got written commitment to pay the boys so we had to take it they would pay but they kept breaching the agreement.

I personally took a resolution to nff congress to bar any club from Taraba state from nff competition if they fail to pay.they still came up with another undertaking which they have breached and so I believe we have to enforce this going forward.
I think looking at statistics security is improving and getting better with every season as the fans are getting more education and the teams doing more as they know the consequences for allowing security beaches.

We have an arrangement with IGP office to set up special squad for football at all NPFL match venues cities that would be in charge to security as a compliment to what the clubs would do and also provide special cover for match officials..  this squad would be professionally trained. We hope to activate this full time next season as I would be meeting the New IGP on this soon.

We have also devise a way to work with nff security committee to flag some matches that we feel are high risk and thus provide additional cover independent  to what the clubs would do.. we have tested this last season in some matches like the 3SC vs Sunshine in Ibadan and for years we were able to have a match without any major incident from this two teams. we did also with Rangers on the final day.

We would also keep working with Supperters clubs to educate the fans . recall last season pillars has issues with Enyimba match and after we fined them and ordered they organized training for Supperters clubs they did and it worked as next time they  drew with heartland there suppress cheered heartland out of the stadium and every time they come with banners telling fans to behave.
We are at present working to send some experts from the nff and the LMC including our LMC COO to go and understudy security arrangements of some  champions League matches under FIFA guidance so we can come and train others here.

Some years back money was spent sponsoring some groups of talented coaches and ex-internationals for a capacity building and match analysis with the intention to supporting our various national teams. What has become of such plans?

We will keep enforcing our rules form any breaches to serve as deterrent totals fines last season was over N60m and no club want to be fined in this tough economic period.
I believe the idea of nff and indeed LMC is not just to build capacity for exclusive use of national teams but built capacity that would support football development at all levels.

So the best question is to ask the beneficiary what have they done with what they learnt? Have they tried to get involved in working with clubs and or academies to impact theist knowledge or rather they all waiting for national teams jobs?

Nff cannot trained you free of charge and you still wait on them to get you jobs? Yeh beneficiary must use the opportunity of the expertise gathered to apply himself at any level he can get for the good of the game.

During the last season in the match involving Enyimba and W/Wolves; there was an allegation that some current Enyimba players attacked W/wolves GM over their entitlement owed to them; what steps have LMC taken to tackle these clubs owing players?

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Well, the players that misbehaved on that day did that because they heard all players that remain with Warri wolves were paid their match bonuses for the last season but those that left were not paid and they felt at least that is their sweat and they played and won the matches. so they decided to take laws to their hands.

What would be done in the new season to deracinate the demon often referred to as “kale or PR” to referees and various match officials? Although it is difficult to prove empirically as of yet, it is common knowledge that many match officials are often offered and receive various financial inducements from club administrators in order to get one advantage or the other in terms of officiating against the opposing side. This has been confirmed by CAF referee instructor, Adebayo Ameenu. Some of these hugely contentious calls are often x-rayed on television by major broadcasting houses like Supersport and Channels TV?

Well, to start with we have to understand that referring is based on human decision and thus may be prone to errors though all efforts must be done to ensure errors are eliminated and or reduced to the minimal.. we see referring error globally in the biggest stage. This is why referees are beings trained constantly all all levels to improve their expertise and perfection to eliminate the errors.We have to be fair to the referees as the way we come out always to castigate referees wholesale over one person error (either deliberate or not) we not doing justice to them.For example, we have played over 350 matches for the season and only less than 20 matches we saw serious errors from referees and Pepple would go About making it look like its wholesale.Also, we see a referee makes a bad call once or twice within a match of 90 minutes and the losing team would go out crying referring killed them and making all kinds of accusations.but I do always ask what did you do for the 89 minutes? How many goals you scored and was cancelled? How many chances you create and were killed? No one can answer.But nonetheless sure referee need to be kept on their toes to ensure they give the best all the times and the system always must have a way to deal with anyone that underperform .
So we are looking of more training for the referees to make them better andl also creating a process to ensure the referees are well monitors and their performances reviewed after every match and those found wanting a dropped. For next season we are working with nff to ensure the number of referees is hugely reduces to ensure professionalism and anyone who falter would be out of the league.During our meetings with clubs I do always tell them if they Complain about referring  that everything rest with them as if they all decidbbe not to interfere with referees that would be the end of any accusations and complaints as their must be a giver before a taker so my efforts is to work with the clubs to ensure everyone play fair  and that would end any suspicions even when a referees made an honest mistake.
As for next season Commencement our target is to start December so we can achieve a lot of objectives.Get out clubs going to CAF competitions to player atleat 13 to 15 games before they start CAF February 2017.be  able to align our calendar to Europe by end of 2017 Season which would be hugely beneficial for us both in terms of organization, planning, and even finances.
We have Already sent out draft schedule to our clubs as we normally  do and once we do about AGM we take off.Thanks fully all clubs are back and planning for next season so I believe we on track and thus is something we discuss since last AGM in February before the 2016 season starts .Our target now is start December 18 and end July 9while our super 4 should start December 5-11 all clubs already have the schedule and are panning. We also envisage to start 2018 season end of August .

How would you react to this comment after the FA Cup final by a sports journalist: “NFF should go (and) learn from the LMC how to better organise the FA Cup and our football in general.How do you react to this statement made on air?

This is part of this mischief I guess.We are working closely together at all times with the NFF on all issues and sometimes this issues are a functions of resources available.
Even in UK is the FA cup seen on same level are the EPL? I don’t think so.
I wish people knew the efforts both the NFF president, Amaju Pinick and VP Seyi and indeed my humble self  have put and are still putting in to get a reasonable sponsor for the  federation cup which would have change everything.Indeed, we got offers but we felt it’s not good enough so we holding on to get the right partners and ofcourse all this avoidable distraction within the system not helping anyone including those fermenting the distraction.
Hopefully, by next season we would see better fed cup and both nff and LMC would work on this to ensure the organization  and everything is spot on and indeed the financial.

I really think it is about poor education on the part of some journalists. I was in the studio – on air – that day and it was virtually impossible to get the young man to see things differently from a position of knowledge despite my best efforts. He kept asserting and matters were almost chaotic.Is the federation doing anything about journalists’ continued education in this regard – as irrespective of hard work done by the football authorities, if the people on the streets daily receive negative information about the football authorities, progress would be either slowed significantly or stalled completely.Of course we are working  to ensure Journalist are always on the same page with us and we are now working to have a proper arrangement with swan to actualize this objective.Even the preseason seminar we going to do there is a seminar for journalist as well.So we all have to keep working as partners to progress the game.

Can we have league matches during the Christmas and New Year holidays?

Can we have a really functional autonomous league body for the other tiers of the male and the female leagues – following the success of the LMC with the Premier league?

Can our Premier league have more than one TV partner in the near future?

Well, it’s something we have been thinking about to have league matches during holidays period and public holidays and including Eid, Christmas and New year but the big issue is about the Ken stakeholders buy in for obvious reasons .
But we will keep consulting.Why not? It’s the world standard and everywhere we see a strong commercially viable league its being run by autonomous league body.

In Nigeria now with LMC it has proven beyond doubt the possibilities of what can be achieved in this direction and the Governing structure of the LMC ( which is a domesticated structure of the EPL Model) which is what we developed along with clubs since 2013 and commenced implementation 2014/2015) has become standards even FIFA is recommending to other jurisdictions.So the current nff efforts with the other leagues is to also get them on track and financially independent .At present, we have super sports as our broadcast partners and we happy with that,we have options to license free to air stations and we did that since 2014 but they have not been able to perform hopefully next season we would get AIT to do some games as we did with the Rangers match this season.We are also making efforts to take out league to other international jurisdictions outside africa.

Recently, we read about deals with Kari Exchange as well as Vas Digital Mobility. This is in addition to the earlier deals tied down with  Star/NBC as well as with the isotonic drink company.Can you elucidate a little more on the imports of each of these deals to the growth and development, not only of our league but the improvement of the lives of the people who love the grateful game .Can you elucidate on the comments on the media that some sharia states vehemently oppose the NPFL-Star deal? How available is this isotonic sports drink on the country? Is LMC helping with distribution in any way?

Yes the deal is Kari exchange is about building a fans Engr
Engagement platform be called NPFL arena with the view of taking the league to the hearts and minds of everybody, creating  more awareness for the league , fantasy games, online shops, betting etc the project is supported by Microsoft as technical partners and the app work be available across all platforms .

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For the VAS whom are working with the 4 major telcos is About sending out the highlights of all leagues matches via mobile phones among others innovations  with 65million active smart phones in nigeria this project can be huge.

So technically we trying to tap into technology to drive the league to the hearts of our people as well as open alternative revenues sources  for  the league,the star deal is huge for the league as essentially is not about money to the league but the funds star would spend to promote the league and everyone can see what they are trying to do now.I feel act they are looking of supporting the broadcasts of over 50 games on free to air next season.

In fact the star deal was voted deal of the month globally by sports business magazine for the month of September 2016 and this clearly show how best its structured.
The structure allowed form flexibility at all levels so no sections will be hurt by having star involved as most of their work would be to promote the league.

As for IproSport, everything is still being concluded with both NAFDAC approvals and distributors. Already three core national distributors with huge are concluding with IproSport to start and we are Hopeful we will soon get the drink all over the country soon and indeed NPFL revenues .