Nigerian brands will be compelled to support our football league, says Lai

Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, has said the federal government will compel indigenous brands to sponsor the country’s football league.

He said this would be done by amending the code of the Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation (NBC).

The minister said the government could no longer tolerate the situation where people continue to develop the economy of other parts of the world from the sweat of Nigerians and at the expense of Nigerian economy.

Mohammed made this known on Tuesday at the close of the Creative Industry Financing conference in Lagos.

“We will amend the NBC code to ensure that our Premier League improves,” he said.

“We will make sure that in the code, if you spend one million dollars to support a foreign football club like Manchester United in Nigeria, you will not be allowed to air that programme unless you spend 30 per cent of that money to promote Nigeria’s league.

“Some beverage companies in Nigeria support Manchester United (Man U), Arsenal and others and spend about six million dollars a year.

“I then asked the question, how much of their products are being consumed over there?

“I was also told that a particular brand of Nigeria Beer is supporting several premier league teams to the tune of seven million dollars a year.

“We can imagine if they give us just 30 per cent of that, we will fix our stadia.

“I know they are going to attack me on this but I am not made a minister to sustain the economy of other countries.”