The English Premier League is the greatest football league in the world. The richest club in the world also belongs to the English Premier league. Both things did not happen by accident! They are the product of a well-conceived, well-articulated, well-planned and well-executed programme of development.
My first contact with the English league, as a young boy many decades ago, was via the weekly weekend announcements of match results on the BBC World Service. The results serviced a whole army of people engaged in Pools betting where participants forecast match results and place bets. Pools betting game is a huge global industry that continues to thrive even till this day. My second contact was in very colourful football magazines (Shoot, Match, etc) that gave very graphic and painted reports on the league and several English footballers that are made to assume the dimension of gods! I never related the game I read about in the magazines with the game I played on the streets of Jos where I grew up. They were worlds apart. One could not even conceive the thought of ever playing along side such giants on the field. English players came from another world.
The English league and television came into my consciousness much later in my life when I came down south and lived in Ibadan, through the once-a-week, recorded and delay-transmitted  ‘Match of the Week’.

Whereas Nigerians knew a lot about the English league for decades very few were attached to the teams to the level of being considered supporters. All of that have changed. In the last decade, in particular, the English league has taken on a new look and a new life. Nigerians of all walks of life now claim supporter-ship of one English Club or the other. And they do so with a passion, enthusiasm and seriousness that is mind-boggling! The influence of television in this development is paramount! The English Premier league must be one of the most watched programmes on television in the world. With the power of satellite television and the importation of some of the best players in the world into English Clubs the premiership orchestrated the evolution of an unprecedented worldwide followership base for the league. Now, almost every Nigerian adopts one club or the other as their own. Such support is demonstrative through patronizing club souvenirs and (for the rich) even direct interaction with the clubs. Club memorabilia are now a common sight on the streets. Even local supporters’ clubs of English teams are being formed and mock ‘games’ take place between them. Most local radio and television programmes are now dominated by stories and reports of the English league. With the influx of several Nigerian players in the English league the relationship is now so firmed up that the Nigerian domestic league now pays the price. Very few go to match venues and even fewer still watch it on television.

Things have to change. We have the perfect opportunity at the moment to make the most monumental changes to Nigerian football in our history! The present league board led by Oyuki Obaseki can make it happen! How? Very simple!

It all must start with the next football season. The title sponsors, Globacom, have provided the platform and perhaps the greatest opportunity Nigerian football has ever had to take the game to the next level!

I propose very simple and very practical reforms for the domestic game.