Emulate Ubah, LMC boss tells Nigerian businessmen

BY GEORGE ALUO
Chairman of League Manage­ment Company (LMC) organiz­ers of the nation’s do­mestic league, Mr Shehu Dikko has expressed delight over the decision of the chairman of Capital Oil Limited Dr Ifeanyi Ubah to invest in the league.
Dikko made the remarks while announcing the ap­proval given to Ubah to take over Gabros FC of Nnewi in the Glo premier league.
“LMC is quite delighted to have a big private inves­tor with huge passion for football taking over a club in the NPFL and hope that this will set the stage for other serious business men and blue chip companies in Nigeria to take over clubs in the elite league either as owners, investors and or sponsors,” Dikko stated in a release made available to Sunday Sunsports.
With LMC’s approval, the club formerly known as Gabros International FC will now be known and ad­dressed as FC IfeanyiUbah.
The LMC Chairman in a letter addressed to Ubah remarked that the approval has been granted conse­quent on the verification of Ifeanyi Ubah Limited’s compliance with require­ments for takeover of clubs and change of name. The change of name takes effect from Match Day 11 and all points accumulated by Gabros International FC has been transferred to FC IfeanyiUbah which now appears on the NPFL fixture and log.
Dikko’s letter stated in part: “After submitting to the very rigorous process put in place to ensure that only serious business minded persons and corpo­rate groups are admitted to club ownership, the LMC is satisfied that Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah has substantially met the requirement and has been granted approval to takeover Gabros Interna­tional FC”.
The LMC Chairman commended Dr. Ubah for patiently working to meet these requirements and stated “it demonstrated your commitment to operating and funding the club in line with LMC Rules and Frame Work which has been designed to protect the insti­tution of the league and also safeguard the interests of the players and other employ­ees of clubs participating in the NPFL”.
The letter listed some of the conditions met to include but not limited to submission of the certificate of incorporation of the FC IfeanyiUbah as a limited liability company registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission, submission of a quarterly Financial Perfor­mance Guarantee issued by Skye Bank and the club’s business strategic develop­ment plan.
The Financial Perfor­mance Guarantee is not cash paid to the LMC but a bank’s undertaken to make available that amount of money to the LMC should the club be proven to have defaulted in meeting its financial obligation to employees (players, coaches and other employees) or to another club and failed to remedy after appropriate notice. This is a safety net put in place by the LMC to address the problems of indebtedness especially to players and coaches by clubs.
Others are a letter of Per­sonal Performance Guaran­tee of the club by Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah, letter from Zenith Bank attesting to Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah’s good standing as the bank’s customer and a Personal Guarantee Deed of agreement of Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah in favour of the LMC for the value N1.5b for three years including investment in club infrastructure. The personal guarantee deed represents an undertaken by Dr. Ubah as the club pro­moter to guarantee and fund the participation and opera­tions of FC IfeanyiUbah for a minimum period of 3 years in league football and compliance to all the NPFL and NFF rules and other extant football rules and regulations .
The rest of the require­ments fulfilled by FC IfeanyiUbah include a sponsorship agreement with Capital Oil Ltd for a three year deal worth N5b to sup­port the club including the provision of new infrastruc­ture (mini stadium) and a letter of consent from the owners of Gabros Interna­tional FC for the takeover and change of name of the club