Davidson Owumi, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), has warned participating clubs to create and maintain functional websites to improve access to club content and verifiable information or risk losing their club licences, Completesports.com reports.
Owumi gave the warning in Enugu during a seminar/workshop for club Media Officers, Media Directors and Marketing Officers titled ‘NPFL/Afrinvest Marketing Investments, Brand Merchandising and Media’, organised by the league body in conjunction with Afrinvest.
NPFL Clubs Must Build Functional Digital Platforms
He stressed that clubs without functional websites stand the risk of losing their licences.
Owumi lamented the poor access to credible and verifiable information from all 20 NPFL clubs, describing it as one of the major obstacles to the league’s drive to attract sponsors.
According to him, both the NPFL and its clubs are carelessly losing millions of naira in potential sponsorship revenue that could have been secured and profitably utilised for the development of the league and the clubs.
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“This is as a result of inadequate, inconsistent, epileptic and, in some cases, the complete absence of verifiable data from participating clubs that lack functional websites and adequate social media presence,” Owumi lamented.
Licensing Sanctions Await Defaulting Clubs
The NPFL chief revealed that the league would introduce enforceable measures to ensure compliance with its policies.
He warned that any club—whether newly promoted or already competing in the top flight—that fails to create, maintain or operate a functional website would not be granted a club licence and could eventually have its existing licence withdrawn.
Media Departments Need Greater Investment
Owumi also urged club administrators to increase funding for their media departments.
“Club administrators should up their game and make adequate adjustments by properly funding their media departments,” he said.
“Without adequate funding and consistent training of media personnel, the media departments will not perform optimally. They will only perform below average.
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“The media department is the eye through which the public sees the club. Hence, any club without a credible and effective media department is ‘useless’ and ‘dead’ in the public space.
“This is because it is the media that projects the club and brings it into the limelight. Ideally, a professionally run media department should have five or six personnel handling clearly defined responsibilities.
“Professionally, clubs should have the following personnel in their media departments: Director of Media, Still Photographer, Graphic Designer, News Editor, Social Media Manager, Content Creator and Videographer.”
Professional Standards Must Improve Across NPFL Clubs
Owumi further lamented that most NPFL clubs operate below acceptable professional standards, with a single individual often responsible for taking photographs, conducting interviews, writing reports, updating social media platforms, recording videos and producing graphics.
“This is an unprofessional, unproductive and counter-effective approach to sports journalism,” he concluded.
