On July 2020, after more than 30 years in the club’s history, Liverpool Captain Jordan Henderson lifted the lustrous Premier league trophy. The fallen giant of the English football had risen once again to lift a Champions league trophy and finally a premier league trophy. While Fans and pundits mostly credit the manager and the players for this success there is one name which deserves equal credit as well i.e the Fenway Sports Group. FSG, which is facing backlash due European Super League drama going on, had bought liverpool in 2010 and since then thanks to their brilliant financial management has made Liverpool a giant in European Football.
This may not seem relevant to as why nepalese football needed the Nepal Super League but the point is to highlight the importance of the financial aspect of the game.
What NSL can bring to Nepalese Football
Improve the Game
By giving Nepalese Players more game time and experience playing with other international players NSL directly contributes to our National team performances. Furthermore NSL can popularize national leagues in this country and give new young players more exposure to this game.
Professional Football
NSL can bring something which Nepalese Football desperately needs and that is playing football professionally viable for everyone. Prior to NSL Nepalese Football players had to be National Team players to comfortably make a living playing football professionally. NSL can change just that by making being a professional footballer financially viable for all players.
How is NSL different from A division League
Nepal Super League doesn’t replace the A division League ,which has it’s own value and need, but is fundamentally different from it in the financial aspect. NSL takes the game in more financially sustainable and viable way for both the players and the clubs.
Usually a football club has three major sources of revenue (Clubs of Major European Leagues primarily earn their revenue through this) :
1. Commercial
A club makes money through various sponsorship deals with various corporations. We can see this through advertisment on jerseys and kits. Furthermore a club also earns profit through sale of those jerseys and kits.
2. Broadcasting
This is collected by the league by providing broadcasting rights to media companies. The fund is then distributed to the clubs either equally or considering their season performance depending on the league.
3. Matchday
This is another revenue for clubs through ticket sales and catering services on the matchday.
Now this may not be entirely true for Nepal, NSL does have more sustainable and viable economic model. The finances of A division League clubs depend heavily on the prize money from winning positions and financial help from ANFA which is not the case for NSL.
Suggestion
NSL can be made better by introduction of New clubs (preferably from A division League) and by introduction of Home – Away system. This will increase the game time for players and revenue for the league which will directly contribute overall Nepalese Football.
