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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
The promoter of Abia Supalig, Dike Dimiri has said the newly formed football league will in many ways boost the economy of the state.
This is even as he equally said that governments in the country should have no business running Football Clubs as there’s hardly any return on investment in such ventures as a result of the way states run sports.
Speaking on the reason behind the establishment of Abia State Supalig, the first state wide league in Nigeria and other sporting competitions, Dimiri said sporting facilities in the state and nationwide are having zero return on investment, hence need to run the football and other sports as a business.
With this, he disclosed that a state like Abia can over her economic challenges and make progress by driving her economy through sports value chain.
“The era when philanthropists ran football clubs with zero business mentality is gone and forgotten, history is full of such philanthropists who ventured and walked away when they are tired of throwing money away.
“It is very unfortunate that the majority of the clubs in the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) will not survive should the various state governments that own them decide to withdraw their usual subventions.
The sports promoter said that the sporting assets provided by the government are seriously underutilized, hence the zero return on investment and stressed that in Abia, the Supalig is there to create value and put the sporting assets into proper use for revenue generation.
He stated that there are many activities around the sports industry, stressing that the value chain of employment trickles down to even as little as the kit manager, which is a professional job that can keep one gainfully employed.
He said that the change in government in Abia State which brought about a new Governor, a new Commissioner for Sports and a new Director of Sports played a huge role in making their visions a reality.
