NPFL 2016/17 Season: LMC Confirms DTMS for Transfers Dealings

• FIFA official commends Nigeria

Transfer dealings in the coming 2016/17 season of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) will be transacted on the platform of the newly acquired Domestic Transfer Matching System (DTMS) which the FIFA TMS Project Officer, Bertrand Vinit has commended Nigeria for adopting.

The Chief Operating Officer of the League Management Company (LMC), Salihu Abubakar, confirmed that the DTMS will be used for players’ transfers ahead of the new football season and urged participants at the three-day TMS workshop in Abuja to pay attention to the seminar teachings so as to acquire relevant knowledge of its operations.

“We have to be ahead, we must blaze the trail and do things right. So we would put the DTMS to use. Nigeria would be the first country in Africa to do this and we have resolved to do it right as part of our innovations to make the league strong, attractive and transparent” Abubakar told www.npfl.ng on the sidelines of the workshop at the Hilton Hotel.

“We urge the participants to be attentive, acquire the knowledge and apply it to their everyday work in their offices so that we can all benefit. Before I came in yesterday, I was really afraid it was going to be tough going but the four resource persons sent by FIFA have effortlessly broken it down to our comprehension and now I can tell you that we can run it smoothly,” Abubakar concluded.

Vinit, one of the four FIFA Resource persons at the workshop said Nigeria’s adoption of the DTMS is a right step in the right direction for the country’s football.

Speaking on Day-2 of the workshop, he said, “Nigeria is the first African country to adopt the DTMS and it’s a big step for Nigerian football. One of the benefits is that the DTMS and ITMS are on the same platform, so domestic and international transfers can be entered in the same place. This is an electronic platform, so it’s online and accessible from anywhere as long as there is an Internet connection”.

“It allows for transparency in the disclosure of information and makes everyone compliant with domestic and international regulations on players’ transfers,” added the FIFA Official who is the leader of the team from Zurich.

More than 25 TMS officials from the NPFL and NNL are attending the workshop in Abuja.