Club Owners task NPFL board on take-off grant, prize money 

By Wale Mustapha

Leadership of the Club Owners Association of Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL has appealed to the league board to support clubs with take off grant for the new season even it expressed appreciation for the sustaining the 100m prize money for the champions.

Chairman of the Club Owners Association, Chief Okey Kpalukwu made the call on the back of the board chairman’s earlier statement regarding the possibility of not paying clubs take off grant before the start of season.

Honorable Gbenga Elegbeleye disclosed at the Annual Genera Meeting, AGM of the league in Abuja on Wednesday that there might be no take off grant to the 20 clubs that will be participating in the 2023/2024 NPFL season but assured of the prize money.

“we want to commend the NPFL board for informing the clubs that the winner of the league this season will get a minimum of N100m, and that this could be more depending on how much they’re able to attract through sponsorship,” Chief Kpalukwu said.

“The clubs are however looking forward to the possibility of take off grants like they enjoyed last season which was N10m (Ten Million Naira). This will go a long way in helping the clubs prosecute few games when the season starts before turning to their sponsors”, he said.

On his part, Elegbeleye promised that the N100m is the baseline prize money to the league winner but that more money could be given, depending on how much sponsorship they’re able to attract before and during the season.

“Let me state clearly that the NPFL board is very happy with the cordial relationship that exists between us and the club Owners. Our meetings have been very peaceful and disagreements are handled maturely. This is how it should be because we’re all working towards having a league that Nigerians will be proud of.”

He added that the NPFL board is working towards ensuring that the clubs get more financial incentives stating that there’s no going back on the winners of the league going home with a minimum of N100m.

“Let me assure you that the baseline prize money for the winner of the 2023/24 season will be N10m, it could be more but we can’t go lower. Also, we’re working on incentives for the teams during the season,” revealed 2nd Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

Enyimba won a record ninth Nigerian league title last season, claiming a huge sum of 100million naira.

Meanwhile, the 2023/24 NPFL season will kickoff on Saturday September 9, 2023 across Nigeria.

All games will be played on Saturday because of the Super Eagles Africa Nations Cup qualifiers against São Tomé and Principe tie at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state slated for Sunday September 10.