I'm sure people more in the know can flesh this out, but it makes pretty depressing reading.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7526005.stm

QUOTE:
"You can see I'm an Arsenal fan by the hat on my head," says Godwin Sunday, a 27-year-old labourer in Abuja.

He and his friends play football in their lunch break with a soft deflated ball and bare feet or broken shoes.

"I won't be going to the match on Sunday but I never miss a Premier League match," he says.

"Would I go to a Nigerian game? No. The Arsenal are too much better."

I can hear the Premier League chairmen groaning as they approach the throes of ecstacy even as Mr Sunday speaks.

Ah, Godwin Sunday. I was picturing an interview with Thermoman for a moment there.

But when Man Utd played Portsmouth in Lagos yesterday, the 60,000 capacity stadium was only half-full.

I thought that too. 30,000 people in a city the size of Lagos isn't really that many.

That's because the game was not in Lagos.

Actually, that article is so poor and bereft of fact that i do not even know where to start when it comes to taking it apart.

I got EXACTLY the same sort of response in Ethiopia, though, when I asked folk why they didn't bother going to local games. "The Premiership's on the telly and it's fantastic. Local football is rubbish" summarises replies pretty concisely.

Sorry, it was in Abjua. The point still stands, unless Abuja is a hotbed of anti-English football passion.

Whilst in broad agreement with the sentiments being expressed hear at what point do you draw the imaginary geographical line and say sorry you can't support that team? When I lived in Ireland almost everyone supported an English team, so why can't Nigerians? I'd estimate half the posters on here claim allegiance to a team that isn't their local one.

It's not like this is new in Africa, but Nigerian league football has never been the equal at least in terms of quality to that say in Ghana. If Ghanaians stopped following Hearts of Oak or Asante Kotoko I would be troubled deeply.

And the remarks of the interviewees only reflect the views many locals have of their home leagues compared to European football. What if the man said he prefers La Liga? Or even Serie A? But if it's the premiership he might as well be razing a village to build a giant paper mache Nike swoop.

Tactical Genius wrote:

QUOTE:
Actually, that article is so poor and bereft of fact that i do not even know where to start when it comes to taking it apart.

Begin at the beginning, as they say.

Gramsci blogged at length about this phenomenon during and after his trip to Tanzania.

As to the attendance in Abuja, I would like to know a) what ticket prices were, and b) whether Nigerian civil servants treat July in the manner of their Italian counterparts.

Gramsci has a blog?

Gman, for a start Abuja is an artificial city built in an area where there was not a large residential area.

If the game was in lagos, i would expect the crowd be larger, regardless of ticket prices.

The two cities are similar to Rio and Brasillia.

"It's not like this is new in Africa, but Nigerian league football has never been the equal at least in terms of quality to that say in Ghana. If Ghanaians stopped following Hearts of Oak or Asante Kotoko I would be troubled deeply."

I am not sure if Ghanain teams have had much more success in continental competitions than Nigerian teams.

"You can see I'm an Arsenal fan by the hat on my head," says Godwin Sunday, a 27-year-old labourer in Abuja."

This is no different to English people following Barca when Lineker sighned for them or Real when they Signed beckham, no more needs to be read into that to be honest.

"He and his friends play football in their lunch break with a soft deflated ball and bare feet or broken shoes."

That's just a lazy stereotype.
Grown men are not seen playing football on the streets of Nigeria let alone at lunch time.
Anyone who knows anything about black people will know that we don't sit out in the sun at the hottest part of the day let alone run around playing football. The guy is a labourer, and on his lunchbreak, he will be sitting under a tree eating his lunch or most likely fast Asleep.
Abuja is at the edge of the Sahara and the natural terrain is similar those lion plains on the Serengetti i.e it can get bloody hot.

The reason why the local league is poorly attended has nothing to do with the EPL, i will attempt to outline them.

1. Death of Popular teams.
The heyday of Nigerian football was post Biafra war and early 90's.
You had numerous teams that were based in regions and identified with the locals.
These tended to be run by local business or rich Benefactors, many of them have either folded or fallen on hard times.

Out of all the great teams of yesteryear, only Enugu Rangers and Heartland F.C (formerly known as Iwuanyanwu Nationale) remain in the top flight (Bendel Insurance were recently relegated).
There are new clubs, but they dont have the history of
Shooting Stars, Julius Berger, Stationary stores and Bendel Insurance.

2. Bad organisation and corruption. This is Nigeria after all and the miltiple format changes of the league over the last decade or so has made things worse.

3. Fan violence. Many of the teams are state-owned and so many of the teams have an ethnic identity which makes certain games Nigerian versions of the old-firm.
With poorly stewerded and policed stadia with poor facilities, even minor skirmishes can cause loss of life.

4. Talent drain, with the poor organisation and paying of players, any decent nigerian footballer is playing
abroad. In the old days they either played locally or moved to one of the big North-African sides. Now you get Nigerian footballers moving to places like Sudan, Angola and Bangladesh for more money.

So in short, Nigerians non-attendance of football matches has nothing to do with the premiership.
Premiership matches are only available on satellite which only middle-class Nigerians can afford (Monthly subscriptions is about 1/3 the price of Sky).

"Most Nigerians first got wind of the Premier League when Celestine Babayaro joined Chelsea in 1997.

"In the 1980s, I was the only person in my area who was watching English football," Mr Lere says."

That's just a goddam lie, unless Mr lere was the only person with electricity and a television in his Area (which would be true if he lived in Abuja in 1980).

Like the rest of the Empire, Nigerians have been watching Jimmy Hill present a weekly feast of Determination football for the last 40 years.
Even when there were 90,000 cramming into the National stadium in Surulere in 85 (I was there) to watch the Nigerian FA cup final, the English first division was still very popular.

Excellent post by TG.

Yes, G-man, Gramsci does have a blog.

Zorg the Leveller wrote:

QUOTE:
I got EXACTLY the same sort of response in Ethiopia, though, when I asked folk why they didn't bother going to local games. "The Premiership's on the telly and it's fantastic. Local football is rubbish" summarises replies pretty concisely.

I've got the same response when I've asked some of the Irish posters on here.