Football: A Beautiful Game, A Profitable Business Here in Nigeria [Read This Very Insightful Post]

Did you say football isn't a profitable business in Nigeria, it's just a beautiful game we all love? Maybe, you should cool down and read to the end of this post. The article will open your eyes to see a lot of football opportunities in your environment.

You already know, Football is highly commercialized these days. There's just too much money thrown into the sport and There's just too much money to be made.  But the issue here is to figure out how you can make a significant amount from this unending large pool of money thrown into the football industry.  In other words, how you can get a substantial share of the juicy cake.

It all boils down to how you define your football really. Football for entertainment or football for business or for healthy living.

I remember this comedy on TV long ago: "Bassey and Company."  The lead character would always come up with some bizarre business ideas to take advantage of any situation they found themselves. He would always say: "If you want to be a millionaire, think like a millionaire." How true!

And I say to you here: If you want to make profit in football, see and think football like a businessman, or a millionaire so to say.

Viewing Center and Sport Bar
As sample, I watched this young man most fans go to his place to analyize and argue about the happening in football. He will mingle with us but he has a viewing center. The other day, we were over a thousand persons that gathered to see the match between Chelsea Vs Arsenal. Emotions and passion were so heated, fans were routing for their favorite team. But at the end, the youngman made cool N100, 000 bucks, because we all bought N100 ticket to gain entry into the viewing center.

Another version of the viewing center are sports bars of private entrepreneurs that also show matches on the big screen for their football fans customers.

Corporate brand also establish their own sports bars like Heineken Champions Planet. A rendezvous were beer lovers who are also football fans mingle together... share cans of beer over a match on the big screen. Of course, the bar owners make a lot of money on match days during weekends and some midweeks

Sports Betting
Guess what, the youngman also has a betting shop beside the viewing center where fans flock in and out to stake daily....he was a Bet9ja Agent. These is all he does for a living and has successfully built a mansion for himself and rides an SUV.

Did you know how much that is put into sports betting? Over a hundred million Naira are traded in Nigeria daily, I don't  know about your country. My youngman is not taking advantage of us, he is actually meeting our needs as football fans. That's what I call thinking like a millionaire!

Teams Shirt Merchandising:
Fans want to brag and show their affinity with their favorite clubs. Here in Nigeria fans show unbelievable support for Premier league teams like Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester united...

Did you know how many active Chelsea fans we have in Nigeria? Over eight million fans want their own customized Chelsea shirt and other memorabilia. And I have this very smart guy that sell these jerseys in his van. He drives to computer village, Idimota, Aspanda.. anywhere he finds clusters of football fans he takes these merchandize to their doorstep. That's what I call thinking like a millionaire.

Football for Youth Development
Here in Nigeria, government still see football just as other sports, a youth development venture, to engage the youth, an exercise for healthy living. The football administrators in NFF, LMC, YSFON...are also looking at football from that viewpoint too.

They are yet to define our football as a beautiful game; to organize it excellently so the beauty can glow and attract the millions of consumers across the country and beyond.

Football for Business
I don't know why our administrators can't simply adopt the template of English Premier League, the most prosperous and popular league in the world. Football administrators and organizers are yet to see football as the beautiful game, let alone a profitable business.

Indeed, it beats my imagination and I find it hard to understand why Nigerian professional clubs are not making money. Better still, why the clubs just refuse to commercialize, make money to grow their teams and the industry at large.

Brands are aware of the global exposure that football teams all over the world are receiving –  They see this as an opportunity to align the fan base of a particular team with their brand. The jersey is almost a walking billboard, as fans walk around bragging about their team in the latest strip boasting a company’s logo front and centre.

Shirt Sponsorship 
Football teams in Nigeria should be run as businesses, they have to realised the value of their “walking billboards” and cash-in on it. Shirt sponsorship can generally be split into 2 categories.
1. Kit Producers – Internationals Sportswear manufacturers like Adidas, Nike, Puma...and local manufacturers like Owu, Select.... can be contracted to pay huge amount as licensing fee.

2. Corporate Sponsors – Aiteo, Eunisell, Bet9ja and many more willing companies can also be contracted to Advertise their corporate or product brands on the teams' shirt.

To give you an idea of how much these deals are worth, Manchester United recently put pen to paper with German giants Adidas. The deal would see the Red Devils receive a staggering 750 million pounds over a 10 year period. This combined with their corporate sponsorship deal with Chevrolet that is rumoured to be worth 559 million dollars over a 7 year period, shows you the monetary value that marketers put on football.

Don't assume these things can only happen in Europe. If Eunisell can advertise on Rivers United, that shows a lot of teams have their own bragging right here in Nigeria.

Teams like Kano Pilkars has a large number of very loyal fan base. I see a lot of Malams wear Kano pillars' shirt not only in the north, but in Lagos also and all around the country. Regrettably, they wear Kano Pillars shirt without a sponsor (no corporate brand logo on it). What a waste?

Stadium Naming Right: 
Shirt sponsorship isn't the only sponsorship avenue for making money for teams in Nigeria. What about stadium naming rights. Teams like Enyimba have their own stadium named after the team Enyimba International Stadium...and that cannot generate any Sponsorship revenue.

Although, it sounds good naming our stadium after our leaders, football legends and perhaps, the team itself. But it is a great commercial waste, because those names doesn't generate any income for the club.

For instance, Arsenals deal with Emirates is said to be worth 150 million pounds keeping the airlines name on Arsenals stadium until 2028.

Imagine, selling the naming right of Enyimba International stadium to a corporate sponsor as Aiteo for substantial amount for a period of time. Enyimba could use such amount to sign better quality players, pay their salaries promptly as well as motivational bonuses.

These in turn will improve the quality of their game, maybe, the team win more laurel and start attracting larger crowd to their game and consequently more corporate brands advertisement and partnership.