NPFL Warns Clubs Over Website Compliance
Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) Chief Operating Officer Davidson Owumi has issued a stern warning to all member clubs: create and maintain a functional website or face the possible loss of their operating licence.
Owumi delivered the message during a seminar and workshop in Enugu for club Media Officers, Media Directors and Marketing Officers. The event, titled “NPFL/Afrinvest Marketing Investments, Brand Merchandising and Media,” was organised by the NPFL in partnership with Afrinvest.
He highlighted that the lack of credible, verifiable information from the league’s 20 clubs remains a major barrier to attracting sponsorship deals. Weak online presence and absent digital platforms have cost the league and its clubs millions of naira in potential revenue.
“This situation stems from inadequate, inconsistent, epileptic, or even completely missing data from clubs that do not have functional websites or a solid social‑media footprint,” Owumi lamented.
The NPFL will now enforce stricter licensing criteria. Any club — whether newly promoted or already established in the top flight — that fails to set up, maintain, or operate a working website will not be issued a licence, and existing licences may be withdrawn.
Beyond digital infrastructure, Owumi urged club owners and administrators to invest more in their media departments, emphasising that effective communication is vital for building strong club brands.
“Club administrators must up their game and properly fund their media units,” he said. “Without adequate funding and consistent training, media departments will underperform.”
He described the media department as “the eye through which the public sees the club.” A club lacking a credible and effective media presence is, in his view, “useless” and “dead” in the public arena.
Ideally, a professionally run media department should comprise five or six specialists: a Director of Media, Still Photographer, Graphic Designer, News Editor, Social Media Manager, Content Creator, and Videographer.
Owumi criticised the current practice at many NPFL clubs where a single individual is expected to handle photography, interviews, report writing, social media, video production, and graphic design. He labelled this approach “unprofessional, unproductive, and counter‑effective.”
