Naija Super 8, Foundation for Great Property

Jenkins Alumona

The recently concluded maiden edition of the Naija Super 8 has been hugely hailed in several quarters for helping bring Nigerian football fans back to the stadium. In spite of the successes the tournament recorded, the CEO of Flykite Productions, Jenkins Alumona, organisers of the tournament however said it was not yet Eldorado. Alumona, the man whose organisation in partnership with MultiChoice revived boxing in Nigeria told Kunle Adewale that introduction of VAR among many other things are on the card to take Super 8 to the dream land, excepts

For a long time now European football has taken the shine off our local league, but with Naija Super 8, it has been proven that if Nigerian fans are offered good football locally under a conducive atmosphere people would turn out at the stadiums. This was exactly what Flykite Production did with the support of MultiChoice.

Asked if he was satisfied with the final outcome of the maiden edition of the Naija Super 8, the CEO of Flykite production, Jenkins Alumona said, “I won’t say I am satisfied or dissatisfied with the outcome of the Naija Super 8, however, we were able to lay the foundation for a great property. I think we scored about 70-75 per cent, but considering that our benchmark for success at Flykite is 80 per cent, we are just a bit short of our expectation.”

For Alumona, Flykite managed to organise a fairly good competition in terms of timing and adequacy of a number of factors. “I am satisfied with the involvement of the fans, especially during the semi-finals and on the final day. Some of the days during the week, the fans turnout didn’t meet our expectations but we understand that this is just the first year and people are catching on very slowly. But ultimately, on the final day we were satisfied with the fans, the way they showed their support, their solidarity for their club.

However, we are dissatisfied with some of the disorderliness witnessed. Nigerians are not used to being orderly in the recent past so it was a bit difficult telling people where to sit and they obey, but as the competition progressed, we started witnessing some progress and improvement in that area. And I hope that next year we can push that even further,” he expressed.

Continuing,  the Vice President  of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria said, “Football-wise, I think the competition scored a good 7/10, but with the teams seeing the benefits and the fans urging them on more, the standard of football will improve to our 80 per cent benchmark for success.”

Officiating in Nigerian football is something that has attracted lots of criticism until recent past and Alumona said the officiating at the Naija Super 8 was fair. 

“The officiating was also fair. The referees tried. Though we saw a few bad calls, but it’s not what some people may insinuate. Sometimes, it may be down to incompetence, tiredness or human error. Human beings make mistakes, we all make mistakes, but its also an area we will improve upon next year.

We provided the referees with communication gadgets to improve the officiating. Hopefully, next year we may add VAR to reduce the errors to the barest minimum. I think we’ve started a good journey,” he noted.

Reacting to the congestion of fixtures in which some teams played two matches in two days, the member of the Nigeria Institute of Marketing said it was caused by the realignment of the Nigeria football calendar.

“It only happened because the teams in the NNL just finished their playoffs and it would be unfair to expect them to start with every other teams. It took a lot of work to rejig those fixtures to accommodate them and the clubs understood. But with our discussions with the Nigeria Football Federation, (NFF), who are central to the success of the competition, we won’t witness such. We would have gotten our own date carved out in the calendar long before the competition to avoid teams playing two game in a row as witnessed in the last edition,” he assured.

On the issue of some of the participating team coaches complaining about the timing of the competition, which they said did not give players enough time to rest, Alumona also adduced it to the country’s football calendar. “It’s still down to the calendar. When the calendar is realigned properly next year as we have received assurances from the highest level of Nigerian football that that would be done. But let’s not forget that it’s a pre-season tournament where you’re supposed to test some of your players and also rest the tied ones. Some teams actually did that. They may not have won the tournament but they saw the benefits. I know one or two club owners who called privately to thank us for this tournament because they discovered players, they tested their teams, saw where they were lapses and found ways to fill it just from this tournament.

“It’s a pre-season tournament, it’s not the league where you must win. We are happy with how far we went and we’re happy with the feedbacks we’ve gotten. As I said earlier, with the realignment of the calendar by the NFF and NPL board those things will not happen next year,” he emphasised.

On how the momentum and the ambiance witnessed in the Naija Super 8 could be transferred to the coming NPL season, Alumona said it’s not the responsibility of the organisers to bring the fans to the stadium, but rather the responsibility of the clubs.

“The organisers of the league have shown from last season that they have the capacity to do the right thing, to provide the enabling environment for success and reduce incidences of violence. Poor officiating had been reduced tremendously and I believe this season will witness further improvement. Therefore, it’s now left for the clubs to engage with their fans to watch them by good performances and better engagements.” The Flykite boss noted.

One of the visions of the Naija Super 8 is bringing the fans back to the stadium and also enriching the clubs on how far the tournament achieved these two targets, Alumona is of the opinion that Naija Super 8 have to a large extent achieved these.

“The vision is the Super 8 is to engage the fans of Nigerian football, in that sense we have. We have rekindled their interest in the game, we have rekindled their relationship with their clubs, we have reminded the clubs that their fans are central to whatever they do-their success or failure. In that sense I think we have moved some steps forward. As per enriching the clubs, that will take time. Whatever it is the clubs got is not enough for them to become suddenly rich but we have shown that this could be done and there is a part to it. Enriching the clubs is beyond just one tournament, it takes several tournaments. The league itself has to be rich enough to enrich the clubs. The tournaments are just to help solve a few problems and pay a few bills,” he clarified.

Against the clamour in some quarters that the tournament should be enlarged to accommodate more team, the Chairman, Lagos State Boxing Association said they are maintaining the status quo and that it would remain the Super 8.

Asked if the organisers would stick to the Eket Township Stadium and the Mobolaji Johnson Arena for the tournament’s playoffs and finals respectively, for the next edition of the tourney, Alumona said it’s too early to decide on that as the organisers are still doing a postmortem of the last edition.

A tournament could hardly survive without sponsors, therefore the Flykite CEO will always be appreciative of all the sponsors that threw their caps into the ring for the first edition.

“All the sponsors performed well for agreeing to be part of the maiden edition. The question is if they got what they expected from their investment. Only they can determine that and if they want to come back. We hope and beg that they come back because they are the reason for the success and we appreciate them. The success that everybody is referring to is actually of a very strong partnership between Flykite and MultiChoice-a huge giant company agreeing to partner with us in a project like this. They agreed to partner with us with GOtv Boxing which was a huge success. They also agreed to partner with us with football and we’re seeing the result. Its only partnership like this that can lift as any sport and help it progress. We are actually depending on our sponsors retuning next year to progress.”

One symbolic thing that was witnessed during the Super 8 is that at the end of every match, clubs were mandated to give their jerseys to fans, this is something the organisers say will be a tradition in subsequent tournaments.

“It’s going to stick in subsequent editions. We are so serious about it and that was why we fined two clubs that erred and next year we’re going to be even more serious about it. The Naija Super 8 is about the fans and we think we should appreciate them anytime the come to the stadium. And next year’s edition we will appreciate them more beyond giving out jerseys, we are hoping that the sponsors encouraged by what they saw this year will engage, support and appreciate them more.

After Flykite in conjunction with GOtv woke up Nigeria boxing from the dead and brought back fans to the stadium with Naija Super 8, the question put forward to Alumona was which sport would be next on the agenda for revival.

“That is not the item on the agenda now. The item is to consolidate and to drive Super 8 further down the line of success,” he expressed.