Explained: The rebirth of Bendel Insurance by Edo State Government – Philip Shuaibu

Shuaibu revealed this to newsmen on Thursday evening at the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) headquarters, noting that Insurance remained unbeaten in this year’s abridged league after going through revamp and rebrand.

Shuaibu emphasized that the team’s performance is a reflection of a deliberate effort and investment made by the the state government to reposition football domestically in the state.

According to him, some fraudulent activities by the management team at the time which kept the club stagnated for some years were uncovered, and dislodged the high level of financial roguery that was holding the club captive.

“Our investments are paying off, and also, what we want from the club, we are gradually getting it. when we rebranded Bendel Insurance four years ago, we were sure of what we wanted to achieve,” Shuiabu told media.

“First, we met Bendel Insurance which had over 300 staff, we had to take this to the Governor and got a new compact management team of just 15 members.

“You can imagine the 300 plus to 15, so the management team started and we have to get new players and after that one, we decided to start.

“The most important part is that, before we came in, they were having an overhead of over 300 million, they were paying the players over 40,000 Naira monthly, and most time, they were owing them 18 to 19 months backlog of salaries.

“But the 300 staff were having their salaries as at when due while the players they were managing were not being paid, so we have to start following the rules of the NNL, the least paid player then became earned 40,000 Naira we raised it ton150,000 Naira, and they get their salaries on or before the 24th of every month and we have never defaulted.

“When we got promoted to the NPFL, we raised it to 350,000 Naira per the least paid player and we have a ceiling of 1 million, so your start in Bendel insurance is 350k and it can get to 1 million according to your performance.

“Every month we evaluate and if a player does well this month and don’doesn’twell next month, your salary drops. So, it is performance-driven.

“Actually, our target for this season was to come in and just consolidate on the Pro League, and fortunately for us, we have qualified for the Super 6, that means playing in the continental competitions is possible and our target now is to play in the Champions League.”