The Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) Board said its attention has been drawn to a letter from a certain Total Promotions Ltd laying false claims to the Television Broadcast rights of the league.
Chairman of the NPFL, Hon Gbenga Elegbeleye noted that the recent letter which was sent to StarTimes, the NPFL Broadcast partners is only intended to hold the league down, describing the company as unknown to the NPFL Board and the claims as totally without basis.
He said a similar irritant letter was sent to the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) last season when the NPFL concluded arrangements to broadcast match of the week on the national television channel.
“The NPFL was set up with no assets nor liabilities as we inherited no sponsors or partners. It is therefore an effort to derail the progress we have made to reposition the league for this strange company to go about writing to our partners and laying claims to a right that is not theirs”, remarked Elegbeleye.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the NPFL is not in litigation with any organisation, definitely not Total Promotions Ltd, a company we have had no dealings with.
“It is public knowledge that the NPFL has not been on television even before the inauguration of our Board, the question therefore is, where has this rights owner been”? the NPFL Boss queried.
Elegbeleye noted that “they wrote this same threat to NTA last season but we still had our match of the week broadcasts. They wrote to Propel Sports Africa and the live streaming of our games are ongoing. They are to be ignored”.
He assured existing and potential partners of the league that the relationship remains without threat and urged the general public to ignore this latest attempt by some of those who have been ripping off the league through corrupt alliances in the past.
It will be recalled that the NPFL in July signed a Broadcast Streaming deal with Propel Sports Africa for Over The Top (OTT) distribution of live league games and highlights. And earlier this November, another five years partnership was signed with StarTimes for a Direct To Home (DTH) satellite Broadcast rights.
Both deals have received huge public acclaim for the NPFL Board for their success in getting the league back to the screens on two platforms.