COMPETITOR: Jurnal Pendidikan Kepelatihan Olahraga 

Volume 14 Number 1 Year 2022 

e-ISSN: 2657-0734 & p-ISSN: 2085-5389 


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 

4.0 International License 
Dynamism of Sports Marketing on Organization of Professional Football clubs 
in Kwara State Nigeria 

Abdulraheem Mulikat1, Abdulraheem Yinusa Owolabi2, Falaye Elijah Kayode3 

1Department of Marketing, Faculty of Management Science, University of Ilorin, Ilorin Kwara State, 
Nigeria. 
2,3Department of Human Kinetics Education, Faculty of Education University of Ilorin, Ilorin Kwara State, 
Nigeria 
1,2,3 No C2, Studiopedia, Off Ministry of Health, Fate Tanke Rd, behind Lgea Primary School, Ilorin, Nigeria 
1mailmulik@gmail.com 

Received: November 26, 2021; Reviewed: December 12, 2021; Accepted: December 16, 2021; 
Published: February 28, 2022 

ABSTRACT 

This study investigated the dynamism of Sports Marketing in the organization of professional football 
clubs in Kwara State, Nigeria. The objectives of this study were to assess the relationship between 
advertisement, a brand of sports product, and the organization of professional football clubs. A descriptive 
research design of survey type was used. The population for the study comprises sports administrators in 
the sports council and management of Kwara United and Abubakar Bukola Saraki Football club. A 
multistage sampling procedure was used to select 120 respondents. The researchers-structured questionnaire 
was used for the study. The instrument was validated by experts in the Department of Human Kinetics 
Education and Marketing Department, University of Ilorin. The reliability level of the Instrument was 
established through the test re-test method using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). A 
correlation co-efficiency of 0.87r was obtained. The administration of the instrument was done by 
researchers. The data collected were analyzed using Inferential Statistics of Pearson Product Moment 
Correlation (PPMC) at a 0.05 alpha level. The result revealed that there was a significant relationship 
between advertisement, branding of sports products, and organization of professional football clubs. The 
study recommends that there is a need for clubs management and other stakeholders at various clubs to 
encourage the private sector to partner with them in the area of market strategies by placing their 
advertisement on the club jersey. 

Keywords: Dynamism; Sports Marketing; Professional Football Club; Organization. 

INTRODUCTION 

The need for sports marketing and sponsorship for the development of sports 
cannot be overemphasized because it enhances aggressive sports marketing which could 
stimulate corporate groups, organizations, and individuals to mobilize financial and 
material resources in form of sports business with the mass media acting as catalyst 
(Babalola 2011). 

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Dynamism of Sports Marketing on Organization of Professional Football clubs in Kwara State Nigeria 

Abdulraheem Mulikat1, Abdulraheem Yinusa Owolabi2, Falaye Elijah Kayode3 
mailmulik@gmail.com 

Sports marketing consists of all activities designed to meet the needs of sports 
consumers through exchange processes. Sports marketing has developed two major 
thrusts: the marketing of sports products and services directly to consumers of sports, 
and the marketing of other consumer and industrial products or services using 
partnerships and promotions with sports properties. It begins and ends with consumers, 
participants, and the user. It relates to the various service produced and activities, 
programs and events implemented and how well these services meet the needs of the 
consumer or user group. 

Fasan (2015) espouses that the development of sports in Nigeria can only be 
attained when a strong financial base exists to execute programmes, develop athletes 
and build facilities. He thus concluded that the greatest financier of sports in Africa is 
the government. Bouzou,(2012) opined that due to the prevailing economic recession, 
the government which is the primary source of funding sports is finding it difficult to 
cope with the fiscal demands of various sporting associations. Thus, it relies on external 
support which often comes in through sports marketing. Fasan (2013 ) equally agree 
that due to the inability of various governments to adequately finance sports. Sports 
marketing organizations have been helping in contributing to the growth of 
sponsorship. 

The genesis of Sports Marketing in Nigeria can be traced to the sponsorship of 
Professional Football League in Nigeria when Cadbury, makers of Bournvita sponsored 
the league between 1990 and 1995. (Belch & Belch 2007) 

I feel quite positive about the future of commercial sponsorship of sport in 
Nigeria. I see the evidence of maturity and recognition that sponsorship is not just 
about 
handling 
over 
the 
cash. 
Just 
in the 
past 
few 
weeks, 
some 
“big 
names” 
here lent 
their support to sports: Guilder – 
the all Nigerian Tennis open, Satzenbrau – 
the Ikeja 
Golf Tournament, Bournvita – 
the open Table Tennis Champion, Unipetrol – 
Lagos 
State Secondary School Tennis, Moukafoam – 
Teakwondo championship 

So even in these very challenging economic times, there is evidence of growth in 
sports sponsorship. I still contend that the future growth of sports sponsorhip rests 
heavily on the individual sport and representatives. National marketing manager, seven 
up bottling co. plc. Corroborating this view. IOC (2011) noted that sports marketing in 
Nigeria depict on the one hand, the marketing of sports products and services directly 
to the consumers of sports by sports goods manufacturers such as Nike, Adidas, 
Reebok, Puma and so on while on the other hand, it could be the marketing of other 

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COMPETITOR: Jurnal Pendidikan Kepelatihan Olahraga 

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51 – 
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Dynamism of Sports Marketing on Organization of Professional Football clubs in Kwara State Nigeria 

Abdulraheem Mulikat1, Abdulraheem Yinusa Owolabi2, Falaye Elijah Kayode3 
mailmulik@gmail.com 

consumer and industrial products or services through the use of sports promotions as is 
the case of when Pepsi-cola, cola-cola, Cadbury, MTN, GLOBACOM and so on 
sponsor sports programs thus advertising their firms or names and further states that 
sports marketing would be effective in Nigeria if sports activities are designed by the 
Nigeria Sports sector to meet the sports need and wants of sports consumer through 
exchange process that are aimed at developing sports and generating revenue that will 
boost the Nigeria economy. 

The researcher also observed that recently, GOTV sponsors boxing, multi-choice 
(SuperSport) enjoys broadcast rights with Nigeria Professional football league while 
indigenous kit manufacturer Owu has produced jerseys for some professional football 
league clubs in Nigeria. Sports Marketing is a sub-division of marketing that focuses 
both on the promotion of sports events and teams as well as the promotion of other 
products and services through sporting events and sports teams. It is a service in which 
the element promoted can be a physical product or a brand name. The goal is to 
provide the client with strategies to promote the sport and to promote something other 
than sport through sports. Sports Marketing is also designed to meet the needs and 
wants of the sports consumer through exchange processes. These strategies follow the 
traditional 
four 
‘Ps’ 
of 
general 
marketing 
product, 
price, 
promotion, 
and 
place. 
Another 
four 
‘Ps’ 
are 
added 
to 
Sports 
Marketing 
relating 
to 
the 
fact. 
Sports 
are 
considered 
to 
be 
a 
service. 
The 
additional 
4P’s 
are 
planning, packaging, 
positioning, and perception; the 
addition of the four extra elements is called the Sports Marketing mix. Sports 
Marketing is divided into three sectors, the first is the advertising of sports and sports 
associations such as the Olympics, Spanish Football League, Nigeria Premier League, 
etc. The second concerns the use of Sporting events, sporting teams, and individual 
athletes to promote various products. The third is the promotion of Sport to the public 
to increase participation. (Mullin, Bernard Stephen & William 2007) 

When the promotion is about sports in general, the use of this kind of strategy is 

“marketing 
of 
Sports”. 
When 
the 
promotion 
is 
not 
about 
Sports 
but 
sports 
events, 

athletes, teams, or leagues are used to promote different products, the marketing 

strategy 
is 
denominated 
‘marketing 
through 
sports’ 
when 
the 
promotion is 
about 
increasing 
participation 
amongst 
the 
public, 
it 
is 
called 
“grassroots 
Sports 
Marketing”. 

To promote the products or services the companies and associations use different 
channels such as sponsorships of teams or athletes, television or radio advertisements 
during the different broadcast sports events and celebrations, and/or advertisement on 

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COMPETITOR: Jurnal Pendidikan Kepelatihan Olahraga 

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Dynamism of Sports Marketing on Organization of Professional Football clubs in Kwara State Nigeria 

Abdulraheem Mulikat1, Abdulraheem Yinusa Owolabi2, Falaye Elijah Kayode3 
mailmulik@gmail.com 

sporting 
venues 
“Street 
marketing 
of 
sport” 
which 
considers 
Sports 
Marketing 
through 


billboards on the streets and also through urban elements (street lighters and sidewalks, 
etc) to help promote and gain publicity during major worldwide sporting events such as 
the Football Worldcup, the Olympics Games, the Super Bowl or the Winter Olympic 
Games. (David, Shayne & Daniel 2009) 

Another example of Sports Marketing though sponsorship is the renovation of the 
contract between Adidas and the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) in August of 
2015, the CEO of Adidas Herbert Hainer companion of the president of the FMF, 
Justino Compean announced the renewal of the contract to permit Adidas to continue 
producing and designing the uniform of the Mexican teams until 2018. This is an 
example of Sports Marketing because as it was defined, Sports Marketing is a 
marketing strategy in which companies related to sports products or services promoted 
their trademark through design production or other resources. 

In this case, Adidas which is completely related to Sports is the company that is 
using Sports Marketing as a strategy by designing the uniforms of the football teams 
and as a consequence, its trademark is being promoted every time there is a game. 
Alexia (2017) affirmed that sports organizations and leagues can greatly benefit the 
larger society in terms of branding sports products through social media networks 
which can be incorporated into market plans and this will allow teams to draw more 
fans and expand their database. However, the organization of sports according to 
Awoyinfa (2017) stressed that organization can be seen as a skill, a practical, and an 
instrument needed in driving an organization towards its perceived goals and 
objectives. Another further stated that sports administration is the process of 
coordinating human, material financial, and physical recourses for the accomplishment 
of set goals. To this ends, the functions of any sports administrator rally around 
effective and efficient organization and implementation of the formulated policies and 
operation of the organization. 

Okpara (2014) stressed that the issue of sponsorship is critical in the area of club 

management 
because 
not 
all 
corporate 
bodies 
are 
involved 
and 
the 
government’s 

bureaucratic procedures including NFF operational oversight sometimes hinder the 
funding of football clubs. In a situation where government function is inadequate to 
finance the football clubs, the clubs face challenges that may downplay their efforts in 
building formidable teams that would win tournaments provided the private sector is 
allowed to assist in a sponsorship deal that would save the team from relegation. 

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COMPETITOR: Jurnal Pendidikan Kepelatihan Olahraga 

14 (1) 2022  
51 – 
60  
: 10.26858/cjpko.v14i1.32484. -ISSN : (E)2657-0734 & (P)2085-5389 


Dynamism of Sports Marketing on Organization of Professional Football clubs in Kwara State Nigeria 

Abdulraheem Mulikat1, Abdulraheem Yinusa Owolabi2, Falaye Elijah Kayode3 
mailmulik@gmail.com 

Organizing professional football in Nigeria has grown from a humble beginning as 
an entertainment and recreational purpose to a prominent sports business through 
marketing that has influenced the lives of many football lovers to invest their money 
into the management of professional football clubs, especially in the private sectors. 
Sports marketing on the other hand has not been effectively utilized by the owners of 
professional football clubs in the study area. This is a result of the fundamental societal 
beliefs that expending your resources on sports advertisement, especially football will 
not generate any economic benefits. This necessitates the need why the researcher to 
deem it fit to investigate the Dynamism of Sports Marketing in organization of 
professional football clubs in Kwara State Nigeria. 

METHOD 

A descriptive research design of survey type was employed for this study. It is 
considered more appropriate events as they appear because it seeks a solution to the 
question of a given problem by attempting to describe the situations and events as they 
appear. The population for this study comprises sports administrators in the sports 
council and management of Kwara united and Abubakar Bukola Saraki Football clubs. 
A multistage sampling procedure of stratified, purposive, and random sampling 
techniques was used to select 20 respondents. The respondents were stratified into 3 
strata, the club management, coaches, F.A Board members, and staff of the sports 
council. Purposively all the 16 F.A board members and 38 management of both Kwara 
United and ABS football clubs were sampled. Also, 66 football coaches and directors of 
sports in the sports council were sampled. The researcher's structured questionnaire was 
adopted for this study. The instrument was validated by experts in the Department of 
Human Kinetics Education and Marketing Department, University of Ilorin. The 
reliability level of the instrument was established through the test re-test method using 
Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). A correlation coefficient of 0.87 was 
obtained. The administration of the instrument was done by the researchers and 3 trained 
research assistants. The data collected were analyzed using inferential statistics of 
Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) to test the formulated hypotheses set for 
the study at a 0.05 alpha level. 

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Dynamism of Sports Marketing on Organization of Professional Football clubs in Kwara State Nigeria 

Abdulraheem Mulikat1, Abdulraheem Yinusa Owolabi2, Falaye Elijah Kayode3 
mailmulik@gmail.com 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
Results 

Hypothesis one: There is no significant relationship between advertisement and 
organization of professional football clubs in Kwara state. 

Table 1 

Revealed Pearson analysis on relationship between advertisement and organization of 
professional football club. 

Variable No Mean Standard Df Cal r Critical Desc 
deviation Val P value 
Advertisement 120 23.13 24.12 Hypothesis 
118 0.324 0.000 rejected 


organization of 
professional football 
club 
120 22.20 2.32 
P<0.05 
Table 1 shows the relationship between advertisement and organization of 
professional football clubs, the result shows the calculated r-value of 0.324 which is a 
strong positive relationship between advertisement and organization of professional 
football clubs and it indicates that there is a significant relationship P= 0.0000> 0.05 for a 
two-tail test. Therefore, the null hypothesis that states that there is no significant 
relationship between advertisement and organization of professional football clubs in 
Kwara state was hereby rejected. This implies that there was a significant relationship 
between advertisement and organization of professional football clubs in Kwara State, 
Nigeria. 
Hypothesis two: there is no significant relationship between branding of sports products 
and organization of professional football clubs in Kwara state. 

Table 2. 

Indicates Pearson analysis on relationship between branding of sports products and 
organization of professional football clubs. 

Variable No Mean Standard Df Cal r Critical Desc 
deviation Val P value 
Branding of sports 120 23.42 3.71 Hypothesis 
products 118 0.421 0.000 rejected 


Organization of 
professional football 
club 
120 33.12 4.14 
P<0.05 
Table 2 revealed the relationship between the branding of sports products and the 
organization of professional football clubs. The results show the calculated r-value of 
0.421 that a strong positive relationship between the branding of sports products and the 

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COMPETITOR: Jurnal Pendidikan Kepelatihan Olahraga 

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Dynamism of Sports Marketing on Organization of Professional Football clubs in Kwara State Nigeria 

Abdulraheem Mulikat1, Abdulraheem Yinusa Owolabi2, Falaye Elijah Kayode3 
mailmulik@gmail.com 

organization of professional football clubs. The results show the calculated r-value of 

0.421 that is a strong positive relationship between the branding of sports products and 
the organization of professional football clubs, thus, it indicates that there is a significant 
relationship p=0.000>0.05 for a two-tailed test, therefore, the null hypothesis that stated 
that there is no significant relationship between the branding of sports products and 
organization of professional football clubs was hereby rejected. This means that there was 
a significant relationship between the branding of sports products and the organization of 
professional football clubs in Kwara state. 
Hypothesis Three: There is no significant relationship between sponsorship deals and 
organization of professional football clubs in Kwara state, Nigeria. 
Table 3. 

Shows Pearson analysis on relationship between sponsorship and organization of 
professional football clubs. 

Variable No Mean Standard Df Cal r Critical Desc 
deviation Val P value 
Sponsorship 120 21.00 2.02 Hypothesis 
118 0.254 0.000 rejected 


Organization of 
professional football 
club 
120 15.11 2.14 
P<0.05 
Table 3 shows the relationship between sponsorship and the organization of 
professional football clubs. The result shows the calculated r-value of 0.254 that is a 
strong positive relationship between sponsors and the organization of professional 
football clubs, thus, it indicates that there is a significant relationship p=0.000> 0.05 for a 
two-tailed test, therefore, the null hypothesis that stated that there is no significant 
relationship between sponsorship and organization of professional football clubs in 
Kwara state was hereby rejected. This means that there was a significant relationship 
between sponsorship and organization of professional football clubs in Kwara state 
Nigeria. 

Discussion 

The finding tested hypothesis one revealed that there was a significant 
relationship between advertisement and the organization of professional football clubs. 
This result supported the finding of Belch & Belch (2007) who stressed that 
advertisement is one of the indies of sports marketing that is used to promote 

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Dynamism of Sports Marketing on Organization of Professional Football clubs in Kwara State Nigeria 

Abdulraheem Mulikat1, Abdulraheem Yinusa Owolabi2, Falaye Elijah Kayode3 
mailmulik@gmail.com 

organization images whether in sports business or any establishment. It has long been 
argued that sports venues are the perfect vehicle for promotional advertisement. The 
array of opportunities for advertisement at sports locations is vast and crucial to the 
effective management of the football league. Similarly, FIFA (2014) affirmed that in the 
2002 Worldcup in Korea and Japan, Rebook decided not to follow the path of Nike in 
the leveraging World cup to grab a slice of the $9.2 billion sportswear market. The 
finding from tested hypothesis two indicated that there was a significant relationship 
between the branding of sports products and the organization of professional football 
clubs, this result is in line with the view of the International Olympic Committee (2011) 
which stated that the branding of sports products is a technique in which sports 
businesses utilize the images or portraits of well-known sports personalities or sports 
team as a marketing strategy to enhance the sale of their products or services. He 
further stressed that branding is an act of giving particular names and images to sports 
products, events, and services so that people will be attracted to patronize them. 
Branding includes the use of a wide variety of sports products by companies like 
Adidas, Puma, Nike, and Reebook which are well-known producers and manufacturers 
of sports wears, and other products which often enhances the effective organization of 
professional football club. The finding from tested hypothesis three revealed that there 
was a significant relationship between sponsorship and the organization of professional 
football clubs in the study area. This result is tallied with the view of Okpara (2014) 
who stressed that the issue of sponsorship is critical in the area of club management 

because 
not all 
corporate 
bodies 
are 
involved 
and 
the 
government’s bureaucratic 


procedures including NFF operational oversight sometimes hinder the funding of 
football club. In a situation where government function is inadequate to finance the 
football clubs, the clubs face challenges that may downplay their efforts in building 
formidable teams that would win tournaments provided the private sector is allowed to 
assist in a sponsorship deal that would save the team from relegation. 

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

Based on the finding of the study, it was concluded that there was a strong 
relationship between advertisement, branding of sports products, and sponsorship and 
organization of professional football clubs. This implies that sports marketing 
components such as advertisement, branding of sports products, and sponsorship are 

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COMPETITOR: Jurnal Pendidikan Kepelatihan Olahraga 

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Dynamism of Sports Marketing on Organization of Professional Football clubs in Kwara State Nigeria 

Abdulraheem Mulikat1, Abdulraheem Yinusa Owolabi2, Falaye Elijah Kayode3 
mailmulik@gmail.com 

fundamental to the effective organization of professional football clubs in the Nigerian 

football league. 

Suggestions 

The study, therefore, suggested that football club owners should adopt sports 

marketing strategies in the area of branding of sports products through advertisement and 

sponsorship deals that would enhance smooth management and effective organization of 

professional football clubs in the Nigeria league. 

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Dynamism of Sports Marketing on Organization of Professional Football clubs in Kwara State Nigeria 

Abdulraheem Mulikat1, Abdulraheem Yinusa Owolabi2, Falaye Elijah Kayode3 
mailmulik@gmail.com 

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