SuperSport Nigeria General Manager, Felix Awogu, a 1994 graduate of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, started his broadcast career with Minaj Broadcast International (MBI) as a reporter in 1995 and was appointed Head of Sports and Outside Broadcast in 2000. In 2001, he became a FIFA-licensed players' agent. But as a journalist, Awogu has covered several Olympic Games as well as World Cup and the Africa Cup of Nations competitions. He joined the services of SuperSport in 2006 as a presenter and was appointed Operations Manager in 2007, and General Manager for SuperSport Nigeria in 2009. He fielded questions on his company's plans for the coming London Olympic Games and other major events, and the role of SuperSport in the development of sports in Nigeria.We have seen the quality of coverage of other leagues by SuperSport; what is the plan to move away from the mediocrity of the Nigerian premier league'For the league, I think that's a product we would have to develop ourselves, to get the best in the long run. We can see what Stephen Keshi is doing for the team; we see the performance of the home-based players. Some of us have always said that if we don't give them a chance, we wouldn't know what they are made of. We have given them a chance, and though we didn't score many goals in the match against Namibia, I saw a fighting spirit and that is the blend of the local and the foreign players, which Westerhof did many years ago.We are excited and this cannot happen without the partnership we have with the league. Of course, it has not grown the way we want it because of a few factors. Football needs to be encouraged.In Nigeria, we have not been growing new players, it's the same cycle. A coach leaves one club with 10 players; and another coach leaves from another club with 10 players, so, it's been a cycle, except with Enugu Rangers where the government refused to give them money and they went local. I think we should encourage some of these coaches to actually invest in unknown talents or budding talents to develop them.SuperSport has invested millions of dollars in equipment and facilities for the coverage of the local league and we are not expecting any returns in the next two to three years. We see it as investment time until we get the basic things right. We'll love one day to be able to do this, engage more directly with the Nigeria Football Federation, the Nigerian Premier League so that we can sit down, train the administrators, show them how to do some of these things, which we experimented with in other countries like South Africa and which are paying off today.For instance, South Africa is one of the emerging leagues in the world and our partnership with them has contributed in no small measure in attaining this enviable height. We are also looking towards being able to strengthen our partnership with the Nigerian Premier League to grow the product and these discussions are ongoing.Television, aside entertainment, also provides an educative part. I think you need to evaluate some of your analysts; their language could be better. We listen to the South African analysts and enjoy them but for some educated ones among us, we think it's sad when our ex-internationals speak the they speak on television.For the players, sometimes the personality is something you cannot throw away. Segun Odegbami and I tried to bring Yekini on board even if he had to speak Yoruba, I didn't mind. I wanted him because whether we like it or not, these guys started playing as kids. They may not have had the opportunity we had to go to school but we cannot throw them away. What we do is to retrain them. Daniel Amokachi, Victor Ikpeba and the rest of them have attended programmes both at home and abroad to train and improve their skills. They are footballers and that's what they have known throughout their lives. These are some of the things we have been working on and it's a gradual process. Remember that as ex-footballers, they possess rare insights about the game and high levels of enthusiasm, which you cannot sacrifice because of the Queen's English!We welcome all the suggestions and we will continue to do our best to empower them because of their own contribution- what they have done for us as a nation. If you have watched recently, we have been pairing ex-internationals with journalists. If you want the Queen's English, we hope the journalist can provide that balance. It's a deliberate act. These guys have the technical know-how of this game.There was an alternative at a time, and people could listen to another channel, but most Nigerians wanted to listen to these heroes. These are some of the things we considered. We will keep retraining. Everyone needs training. No one is an island. It's something we will keep working on in SuperSport for the benefit of our DStv subscribers.Talking about some of your sponsorship programmes, let's take the DStv Basketball League for example: How does your sponsorship, the bulk of which goes to the league, impact on the players'Let me give you a scenario. Dodan Warriors, because of their presence on television, has gotten club endorsement of N5m a year. This shows what television does for you. The trick is to get experts around you, develop brand managers and get sponsors. For me, it's not the sponsorship money we give to the Federation, it should not be the end; it should be a means to an end. Club owners should not be lazy. They should develop the product, take advantage of what they have and market themselves.Of course, the money goes to the Federation; the Federation should sit down and know how to disburse their money. We cannot come and say, you take this or that, that's basically not our part of the bargain.Apart from that, a lot of our players are leaving the country from Basketball going to schools in America, which we were not experiencing in other sports. All they have to do, without travelling, is to send their tapes and interested sponsors can evaluate the qualities of the player and decide whether they want to offer a scholarship or not.These are some of the advantages we are getting. Basically, we are saying that the teams should leverage on the many advantages of TV coverage to get the best for themselves.You once said it costs about N10m every week to cover these games across the country. Is this amount a CSI or you expect to make returns on your investment'As I said earlier, it's a season of investment. You invest to develop the product and we are developing the product. We are not Santa Claus; we are trying to build a product that will be beneficial. Our business is to sell decoders and one day, the league will be attractive enough to put maybe another 100,000 decoders in the homes of people; that's an investment.We are looking at the future; we are not saying people are not watching the league, but I must tell you that people are watching the league. Today, I had calls from people, asking why we didn't show a few more games. So, people are watching, especially with the last performance of local-based players in the national team.People are interested to see a well-developed league where players earn well, where superstars live among us in Nigeria and not just living in Togo or elsewhere because our players leave the country for as little as $2,000 and go to countries like Iraq or Iran.We lost a player in Iran, Okoye, a former Rangers player, and that's because we haven't really handled the fundamentals- decent salaries. Yekini came back and played in Nigeria. I am still waiting for a time when the likes of Austin Okocha, instead of going to India, would join Rangers or Kanu Nwankwo would join Heartland. You can only imagine the impact this would have on the league even if it is just one year before they formally retire!When Yekini, of blessed memory, came, I was opportune to cover a match and I witnessed about 5,000 people waiting. They said they wouldn't enter the stadium until they were sure that he was going to play; he played for Gateway. The owner of Rojeny Stadium, Chief Onwuka, called me to speak to these fans. I told the fans that Yekini was around and was going to play. He (Chief Onwuka) made some decent money from gate takings.Imagine what happened because of one star! These are some of the areas we should develop-getting superstars in our league.Do you think it's a wise investment and would it deliver on returns in even four years as against your three-year projection'We have already spent five years investing in the league. First of all, you have to determine what is long and what short term is. I believe our investment is for the long term. The question then is, how long is long term by your projections' Is it feasible or sustainable that you would continue to invest blindly without any evidence of possible returns'It has yielded something so far. We have provided the opportunity for people to watch them on TV and see that these players have potentials. Apart from it being CSI and a long-term investment, if SuperSport is contributing to discovering talent for Nigeria, I am very happy that we are contributing to developing budding talents and that's enough satisfaction.But in the long run, we also want these players to be retained in the Nigerian league for at least two seasons because if Uzoenyi plays in his club for the next two seasons, he would attract about 10,000 people every week. Children will start seeing him as a model. And I keep asking, what do our players do with that fame' Our players come out today, they play and they go back home. How do they impact on their communities' On their free days, do they go to high schools to mentor younger players' How do you encourage youngsters from high schools'If the players visit the schools and have an impact, becoming role models for the younger generation, the parents will take note and may even be influenced to come to watch a game or two. The NPL should sit back and develop a strategy on how to attract the fans; the Basketball League should do the same; we can't just sit there and only wait for the government. These are areas we should find a way of sorting out.Take, for instance, last year, Naija Made, one of the magazine programmes on SuperSport, raised N750,000 for the highest goal scorer just by making it available on TV. We raised that money just to say, thank you, for scoring that number of goals. It's just one of those things. We have to carry the NPL and NFF along; we have to do it together. If we do it alone, it's not the same. The football authorities should recognise those talents.Why do you keep investing in the Nigerian league despite the circumstances' You hear that referees even lobbied to officiate 'lucrative' matches. How do you hope to survive in this environment and reap returns on your investment'I think we are very unfair to the sports sector. If you rate every sector, the sports sector is still number one despite all the problems. The health sector is not doing so well; so also are the education and aviation sectors.The only area in Nigeria we can say we are among the top 50 in the world is probably sports. But we know we have a choice to go higher. The decay is not just in sports; it's total.The revolution Nigerians should be talking about is ethical, we start beating ourselves saying, 'what do we want to leave for our children'' Let's clean up our system. There's corruption everywhere but we should be open and clean.What I'm saying is that there are certain aspects of our system we have to look into. Athletics is doing well, if you rate the top 10 athletes globally, Nigerian women are among the top-rated. Which other sector are we fourth in the world' We must give credit that in spite of everything, sports is not that bad but we can get better.Today, the second largest foreign exchange earner of Brazil is export of football and they are a large exporter while Nigeria is, perhaps, the second or third largest exporter of football but we go very cheap, almost for nothing. Our players run to Iran, Sudan-countries that normally shouldn't be able to afford us.You are talking about government ownership; I'm saying a privately owned team is already coming into the premiership, which is Nembe or Bukola Babes; so, things are already beginning to change. But I think the thing here is regulation. Whether government owns it or not, the board appointment should be tenured. Government cannot just come and fire a person because another political party has taken over. These clubs should be well run and the NPL should come out with a template as to how things should run.We would like to know what informs SuperSport's choice of covering a particular match. How do you choose which ones to cover' What about other sports, just football and basketball; we have other sports that we need to cover as well.It may be that you haven't been following our Blitz channel. We cover all sports there, golf inclusive, from Nigeria and around the world. We also cover Polo here in Nigeria. We've signed a deal with rugby. These are other sports whether we like it or not, but our national sport is football and I believe that when we develop football fully in Nigeria, the dividend will spill to other sports. That's how it's done.Somebody called me from the NFL recently, asking us to sponsor the women's team. What you do is you sell the bigger brand and use part of the proceeds to develop the lesser brand and this is what I think everybody should be doing.We are committed to investing and developing this product. A lot of people say, 'why are you investing so much'' Well, I still believe there is a bright future for our sports. We've got the talent; all we need to do is get the administration right. Once we can sort out all the administrative bottlenecks we will have the right people in the right places.I see sports in Nigeria as a big business. Some people talk about attracting about N1 billion sponsorship for our league but I believe the league can even attract more, that's about $7m. The South African league, from nothing, is now one of the richest leagues in the world and I know that Nigeria has that potential.What is the magnitude of SuperSport investment so far in the last two to three years'Our investment is huge. We invested in HD (High Definition), which is the latest technology; maybe in a couple of years, we would be talking about 3D; that's where the world is headed now. We have invested in studios ' both SD and HD ' and we also invested in training and sponsorship programmes.We sincerely believe in evolving technology; that's why in a few days, you will be watching direct to home offering, which we call GOtv from our sister company. Basically, we are trying as much as we can to get the Nigerian league across to millions of Nigerians.Our investment is really huge but I think the most important investment is the one we are investing in human resources and that you can never take away. Some of the young people we trained in the past have become great cameramen and production professionals, probably some of the best in the world today, and they now get jobs from all over the world. We are investing for a long term and I am very happy about that.Are you in liaison with the government to secure some guarantee for returns on SuperSport's investment in Nigeria'What guarantee do you need' The first is that we have a democracy, and democracy in itself is enough guarantee. The government has policies creating enabling laws for investments to thrive in the country. What we are doing is simple; we are investing because we believe in the Nigerian government policies, which are being fair to businesses and we are striving to see how we can grow the product.If we grow the product, we'll all be very happy because the product. Like what's happening in South Africa, people are actually buying DStv decoders because of the South African league, which has been developed to a super brand.Of course, you can see the way they use the money; they have a basic salary for the players. They don't pay regular year's sign-on fee, which, to me, is one thing we should work on. Instead of giving a player N6 million a year, it is better to pay him N500,000 a month. That player will be a better player because if he squanders his N6 million, what happens in the next six months' If he starts begging people for money, he devalues his person and that affects his play on the field.For years, I have been championing this but nobody seems to have understood it. I think we should really re-order. The money is still their money but spread it out for 12 months and let that player have sanity; let him be able to live well. If he has to feed his family, let him be able to feed his family over a sustainable period rather than giving him all that money as a lump sum.These are young men; with N6 million in the pocket, that player will lose focus. This has not really worked, it has not helped us. That's why the first 10 matches of the league are exciting. The players are buoyant if they (club owners) have paid them their sign-on fees. But if they don't pay them and they pay them suddenly in mid-season, they get N3 million each, then they lose all their matches and the league is no longer exciting. It has a psychological effect. You have to prepare them properly; that's the way I look at it.At the London 2012 Olympics, what do we expect in terms of coverage'As we keep doing, we are a world-class organisation. We deliver world-class signal, both in HD and SD and we celebrate sport live. It's going to be exciting, we'll celebrate it to the fullest and we have some world-class sports personalities coming on board to analyse. They are experts in these games and I'm sure it is something everyone will enjoy.It is going to be taken from our studios in South Africa. And we hope that Nigeria will do well in the Olympics. For basketball, we hope we will win in the play-offs and qualify.We are ready, we have dedicated channels for the Olympics, we will give you blow by blow accounts, and we have a team of reporters who will be there both from Nigeria and South Africa to cover the games for us. We are absolutely ready. The only thing we are hoping is that Nigeria performs well because if we do, it's an added advantage. If we do, it boosts television as well as excitement among Nigerians.The sponsorship goes to the club but the players don't feel it. How do the players gain from all of this' What exactly is the value of the sponsorship'First of all, how do you value your product' Have the teams sat down to look at what they have and get experts to value it' Before you sell a property, you do valuation and say this is the value of this property.The Nigerian League, for many years, was sold for N70m until we came in and television came in. The value jumped during Chief Oyiuki Obaseki's time to around N800m; that's the impact of television. How were these teams surviving with N70m for 20 years' How are they unable to survive with N800m' These are some of the issues.First, we have to decide how we want to run our professional league. What should be the basic salary' Some people don't know that some players get a sign-on fee of N3m and some players get N6m. What some people refer to as salaries are really allowances, which, to me, is wrong. Players should be paid a minimum monthly salary of let's say N250,000 instead of a sign-on fee every year because sign-on fee itself breeds corruption.Because, a coach can go with 10 players to a new club and insist to the management that these are the players that he works with and then gives them N3m each. How are you sure the whole sum goes to those players' But the NFF or the NPL should sit down and say okay, we must pay good salaries, because if you give them N3m or N5m, in three or two months, they are broke.Then they (players) live on N30,000, which cannot sustain them and this translates into the field where they cannot really express themselves. This same monthly salary would help them dress and comport themselves well and also improve the way they think.
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