TheCable

The League Management Company (LMC) owes its staff nine months salary, TheCable can report.

TheCable also understands that the LMC is yet to pay match delegates and commissioners since the commencement of the 2020/21 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).

The ongoing season was initially scheduled to commence on December 6, 2020, but kicked off 21 days later, with all matches played behind closed doors.

This season features the 20 teams from the previous one as no club was promoted or relegated after the campaign was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of the expected 38 matches for the whole season, nine games have been played so far.

“The staff of LMC has been working but are owed salaries for the past nine months and there’s no hope in sight that the staff will be paid anytime soon,” an insider told TheCable.

“How do you expect the staff to cope in meeting with their responsibilities? The management is not even talking to them to know when they will be paid.

“It is not a different case with the match delegates and commissioners going for NPFL matches since the commencement of the 2020/21 season.

“LMC has not paid any delegates or commissioners they have been sending out since the league started in January.”

LMC entered into a five-year deal with Next Digital for the production, distribution, sales, and commercialisation of the NPFL in November 2019.

With no progress made a year after reaching the agreement, the LMC entered into another five-year “strategic and investment partnership” with Redstrike Sports, an international sports marketing agency based in the UK and Malaysia.

“Just like Next TV, Redstrike has not yielded the expected dividends. They have not paid. But the management is just fronting in the public with too much grammar,” the source added.

“The management is not sincere with the contract for the commercialisation of the Nigerian league. And that is why our football keeps declining on a daily basis.”