Is $750,000 Nike deal worth celebrating?

It is no longer a secret that adidas refused to renew its contract with the NFF following what it termed contractual breaches and the leadership crisis that engulfed the football federation after the World Cup in Brazil.
Adidas had complained bitterly that players and officials of the Super Eagles did not play by the rules when some of them wore rival company’s apparels during the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.
Although the kit manufacturing company was magnanimous in allowing the national teams of Nigeria to continue to make use of its kits even after the expiration of the contract in December 2014, it did not accept to renew the contract.
Consequently, the NFF had to look elsewhere for kit sponsors and it did not take so long before the federation came up with Nike, adidas main rival in sports wears manufacturing business. Going by the profile of the American company, it cannot be said that NFF made a bad choice.
Going by the contract, Nike will design performance and training apparel, and equipment, including team kits and footballs, for the Nigerian national football team players at every level of the game.
Nike sponsors some of the leading football nations like Brazil, England, France, Netherlands, Portugal, the USA, South Korea, South Africa, Australia among others. Nike’s most famous individual athletes are Portugals Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid, Neymar of Brazil, Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova, Tiger Woods, Rory Mcllory, LeBron James, Derek Jeter and a host of other stars. These influential athletes rake in millions of dollars yearly from Nike.
Nigeria has a history of partnership with Nike dating back to 1994 when then Nigeria Football Association switched from adidas to sign on the American kit manufacturing company. It will be recalled that Nigeria in 1996 won the Olympic gold medal in Atlanta in Nike shirts.
Even as the quality of kits to be supplied by Nike may not fall short of expectations, the worth of the new deal with the company is what has generated concerns among Nigerian football fans and analysts.
It is now an open secret that for the three years that the contract with Nike is going to last, NFF would pocket just over $3m. A breakdown shows that in the first year which is 2015, NFF will receive $750,000 and the remaining two years would fetch the federation $1m each. And if the Super Eagles eventually qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, Nike would pay additional $500,000 in bonuses.
Though the Nike deal is a minimal upgrade from the Adidas contract that ran out in December 2014 in which the German giants paid the NFF 700,000 euros (N150m) a year it is nowhere near the amounts being paid to other national teams and big name individual sports stars which means the deal isn’t worth celebrating considering Nigeria’s high profile in the footballing world.
Before its deal with Nigeria this week, the sportswear giants signed a deal with the Football Federation of Chile (ANFP) worth $7 million per year – more than twice the South American previous kit deal with Puma. In total, Nike will pay the Football Federation of Chile $56 million for eight years. While South Africa is also earns $4 million a year in its deal with the American company which all dwarfs Nigeria’s earnings in the widely celebrated deal.
For instance, Portugal and Real Madrids  Cristiano Ronaldo earns £14.1m a year, tennis star, Roger Federer gets £10m a year, Neymar of Brazil and Barcelona takes home £9.5m a year from Nike. In 2003, Nike paid golfer, Rory Mcllory $250m for 10 years.
Other stars raking in millions from Nike are Rafael Nadal who pockets $10m yearly, former World’s number one golfer, Tiger Woods earns $20m a year, baseball player, Derek Jeter gets $10m a year, basketball star, LeBron James is paid $10m a year just as retired basketball legend, Michael Jordan still takes home the highest sum of $60m a year from Nike.
Former NFA Secretary General, Alhaji Sani Toro whose tenure saw Nike’s first contract with Nigeria in late 1994 has picked holes in the new deal saying it does not reflect the worth of the country’s football.
He said if the NFF made use of an agent, Nigeria would not get reasonable money from Nike because most times agents put personal interest over and above their clients own.
Toro recalled that during his tenure as Secretary General of the NFA, the association used an agent to broker its deal with Nike but in the end, the agent could not account for all the money.
He also suspected that apart from the issue of agent, NFF settled for the ‘peanuts’ from Nike because it had no alternatives after the withdrawal of adidas.
“Well they must have their reasons for accepting the terms with Nike. This is not the first time Nigeria is having a contract with the American company.
“My problem is had the NFF gone directly to the company, they would have had a better deal. It would have been better than going through an agent.
“I remember when we had a contract with Nike, our agent could not account for all the money. Even when I left office, a lot of money was not accounted for. But if they have a reliable agent this time, that will be fine.
“Maybe they had problems getting a replacement for adidas. Otherwise, Nigeria is bigger than what Nike has agreed to pay,” he said.
However, the president of the NFF Pinnick, at the signing ceremony in London praised the deal with Nike and said it would open more doors for the football federation.
“I am thoroughly convinced that this agreement is the beginning of good and great things to happen to Nigeria football with regards to sponsorship deals.
“The NFF is happy to come into partnership with a leading global brand like NIKE. We are in good company.”
Nigeria Flying Eagles would launch the new kits at the forthcoming FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand. As Nigerians wait anxiously for the new kits to be unveiled, the issue of design has formed part of discussions concerning the Nike deal.
Everybody is waiting to see if what Nike is going to produce for Nigeria will be better than the design and colour of the adidas kits that the country’s national teams donned for over a decade.