19th December, 2021
Mr. Yemi Lawal, Osun State’s Commissioner for Youth and Sports said the Osun United FC and Osun Babes FC, both owned by the government are not generating revenue for the state.
“The state FA Secretary once told me that it is part of the ethics of FIFA that government should not have hands in the administration of a football team.
“When they need money, they will involve the government but when they generate money, the government has no business in knowing how it is spent,’’ he said.
Lawal was speaking on Sunday at the third anniversary of the “Family United by Football (FUBF) Forum’’ at the Osogbo Township Stadium.
The commissioner stressed that the management of the teams only made recourse to the state government or approached him, as the commissioner for sports, when they needed funds.
He lamented that the activities of the state’s FA were shrouded in secrecy, saying it created a negative impression through media propaganda to paint the state government in a bad light as neglecting the teams.
Lawal said that the state’s teams have never (to his knowledge) generated a Kobo for the state government.
“I recently learned that 11 players from Osun Babes had been sold, but no report or remittance of the sales was made known to the state government,’’ he noted.
He said he needed to correct the misconception that the state government does not have records of money generated or deposited into the state’s purse from the sale of players by the teams’ management.
Lawal said, however, that in spite of the misgivings, the state government would begin work on the Osogbo Stadium pitch that was in a terrible state by January 2022.
In his remarks, Mr. Churchill Oliseh, Nigerian football manager who manages FC Ebedi, and was guest speaker at the program, said the government really had no business in managing football teams, as football is a self-sustaining business with profits.
Oliseh noted that governments were willing victims in the unfortunate situation of Nigerian football as they kept pumping money into professional football that did not need the money.
Such monies, he explained were better spent on developing grassroots football.
He said football enthusiasts should be shareholders in football and not stakeholders (which anyone can be) as they can make a profit when they invest in football.
“Football is operated upside down in Nigeria where governments sponsor professional teams, leaving grassroots football.
“Football must be run at a profit. Football is a business; if there is no profit, it is not business.
“If you invest properly, you will make your profit,’’ Oliseh stressed.