More Gains for the NPFL as La Liga Partnership Yields Early Fruit

The recently-signed partnership between the Nigerian Professional Football League and the Spanish La Liga is beginning to yield gains just a couple of months after both parties sealed the landmark deal in Abuja. The Spanish League Association Foundation has already voted 54,000 euros, as well as sporting materials, including training shirts, official balls and other equipment, to El Kanemi Warriors in a bid to help assuage the problems faced by the Borno State club as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency. Also an All-Star team of the NPFL will head to the European nation in August where they will played friendly games with top-flight outfits Malaga and Valencia. The matches, which will be beamed live, will help to further promote the Nigerian league and open new opportunities abroad for our players.

One fully expects that more encouraging yields will be coming through from this partnership and this would no doubt enhance the marketability our players, clubs and league. In the ultracompetitive world we live in today a country like Nigeria with a population size of 180m, lots of oil and an abundance of mineral resources, should be an irresistibly beautiful bride, if we know how to apply our make-up properly. I have often maintained that if we get our act together, the money to run football and other sports would come in from overseas. This La Liga deal shows that if we keep our standards, the big players in the global sports industry will be keen to get a piece of the action, which then translate to foreign direct investments, jobs for Nigerians, and more wealth, peace and unity in society.