The Nigeria Premier Football League has spent the weeks leading into the 2026/27 season trying to strengthen the competition away from the pitch, with a new broadcast partnership, a promised record prize for the champions and a long-awaited title sponsorship all forming part of the league’s latest commercial push, Footynaija.com reports.
The NPFL started the year without a sponsor and had also faced the familiar problem of making its matches easier for supporters to watch. In January, chairman Gbenga Elegbeleye said the league was operating without sponsorship or government funding, although he pointed to regular referee payments, rising prize money and efforts to secure television coverage as signs of progress.
That situation began to change as the new season approached. At the league’s Annual General Meeting in Ibadan, Elegbeleye said negotiations for a new title sponsor had reached an advanced stage and promised that the agreement would bring more money to participating clubs.
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The NPFL has also moved to widen its audience. Earlier this month, the league announced a partnership with Murphy Ben International that will put selected matches on its official YouTube channel, giving supporters free access to live and delayed coverage while creating another commercial platform for the competition.
There has also been a major increase in the reward waiting for the next champions. The 2026/27 winner is set to receive ₦1 billion, the biggest title prize in NPFL history.
Against that backdrop, the league has now unveiled the commercial agreement it had been preparing to announce.
NPFL secures N10.5bn sponsorship deal
EUROMATCH has been unveiled as the new NPFL sponsor in a three-year agreement worth $7.5 million, with the league set to receive $2.5 million per season. The total value is about N10.5 billion.
Elegbeleye announced the figures during the unveiling ceremony in Abuja on Wednesday, describing the occasion as a historic event for the league.
“I want to commend everyone for making out time to be part of this historical event of unveiling new sponsors for the NPFL,” he said in a report by the Sun Nigeria.
The chairman also revealed that 60 per cent of the sponsorship money will go directly to participating clubs, with the funds intended to improve players’ wages and welfare.
But Elegbeleye believes the NPFL’s progress is not only showing up in its commercial figures.
He said the league is now attracting enough supporters to create a different problem from the one it has faced for years.
“We now have massive spectators coming out to watch our matches. We are no longer struggling to get the spectators to the stadium, we are rather trying to manage the crowd,” he said.
The unveiling was attended by NFF president Ibrahim Gusau and former Super Eagles internationals including Austin Eguavoen, Daniel Amokachi, Samson Siasia and Brown Ideye.
