Analysis of Sports Journalism Coverage of Nigerian Football in National Newspapers

Sports journalism in Nigeria has expanded alongside the country's passionate football culture, yet systematic analysis of how national newspapers cover Nigerian football, including the Nigerian National League, the Super Eagles, and football governance, remains sparse in the scholarly literature. This study analysed the sports journalism coverage of Nigerian football in selected national newspapers. A quantitative content analysis was conducted on 360 sports news articles from three national newspapers (Punch, Vanguard, and the Nation) over a three-month period covering a peak football news cycle. Articles were coded for coverage topic (club football, national team, player personal profiles, governance/administrative), story placement, source diversity, analytical depth, and story framing. Results showed that Super Eagles coverage dominated sports news space at 47.8 percent of articles, followed by foreign club football involving Nigerian players (31.4 percent) and domestic league football (12.6 percent). Women's football received only 3.8 percent of total football coverage. Analysis depth was rated as shallow (primarily match results and event reporting) in 68.1 percent of articles. Source diversity was limited, with sports officials cited in 71.3 percent of articles while independent analysts and players themselves were underrepresented. The study concludes that Nigerian sports journalism on football is heavily oriented toward male national team and foreign league coverage at the expense of domestic league and women's football development narratives. Recommendations include editorial policies promoting domestic league coverage and gender-balanced sports reporting.

Keywords: sports journalism, Nigerian football, newspaper coverage, content analysis, media and sports