Heartland points the way forward for NPFL clubs

It is untenable that government is going to play nanny to our clubs forever so now is the time for club leaders to start thinking and being innovative. In that regard I would like to praise the Heartland FC initiative. Reports say the club’s chairman Goodfaith Etuemene has activated plans to engage international partners that can help take the club to a new level.

He is currently discussing with clubs in Poland, Germany, Czech Republic and Turkey. Typically, a good partnership should see the foreign club offer financial and technical support to the NPFL side as they search for the next big talents out of Nigeria. It is also a way for the foreign clubs to globalize their appeal, and no country in Africa should be a more important market than Nigeria.

This is frankly the most sensible bit of business news I have seen from an NPFL club in a while, these are thinking men who understand how modern football business should be run and how to grab a share of the billions of dollars crisscrossing the world annually in football investments. This is the kind of project I would have loved to be involved in, and believe me when I say I can offer my advisory time for free, so call me if you need help. We are Nigeria, we are a country of 180m people, we have oil and vast quantities of various mineral resources, we have football pedigree, we have groomed global stars like Austin Jay Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, Mikel Obi, Finidi George etc and can groom more, we should at the very least appeal to any mid-level club in the developed world. Way to go Heartland.