Following discussions finalized at the sidelines of the 2nd World Leagues Forum in
Paris, France between the League Management Company (LMC) and the Spanish La
Liga, Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) Clubs’ officials will early next year
undergo capacity building programs through conferences and workshops on sports
development, marketing, financial control, club administration, stadium security and
players’ development.
Chairman of the LMC, Shehu Dikko, who was one of the 23 heads of leading global
national leagues in attendance at the meeting held on December 1, said the program is
the outcome of his meeting with Javier Tebas, chairman of La Liga.
Further to the discussions which pre-dated the meeting in France, Dikko disclosed that
“the LMC has already received a working document and what we did at the meeting in
Paris was to agree to next steps including the arrangements to send our delegates to
Madrid. They are also waiting on our dates which I think we are considering early
February”.
Giving further insight into the contents of the agreement, the LMC Chairman said, “we
concluded collaboration between the NPFL and the La Liga towards assisting the NPFL
in its developmental programs in areas of capacity building that will be achieved
through conferences and workshops on technical matters such as Coaching, match
administration, marketing, financial control, stadium security and players’ development
etc”.
He said there also will be programs on knowledge exchange between the La Liga Clubs
and the NPFL Clubs, noting that “this will involve the participation of club
administrators, coaches and technical personnel from the NPFL Clubs to Spain for
technical understudy with La Liga Clubs. They also will from time to time send their
own officials here”.
Initial contact with the La Liga was made at the first World Leagues Meeting in England
and while extensive discussions were held between officials of the LMC and the La
Liga, the Spanish league extended an invitation to the LMC for concretization of the
mutual pact.
Dikko said, “The LMC will continue to explore bilateral beneficial pacts for the growth
of the league and more especially for our Club Managers who are the spine of the
structure of any successful league. We must translate the leaps at the LMC to
administration at the club level and this we seek to achieve through collaborations with
some of the world acclaimed successful leagues”.
The LMC Chairman was among the 23 Chairmen of the leading world leagues that met
in Paris, France on Tuesday, December 1 to form the World Leagues Association, an
umbrella body that will interface with FIFA on matters relating to professional football in
the world.
Five members led by the head of the Mexico’s Liga MX, Enrique Bonilla were selected
to develop a final framework for the association. Other members are Commissioner of
the United States’ Major League Soccer, Don Garber, Mitsuri Murai of Japan’s J-
League, Christian Seifert, the Chief Executive of German Football League and Frederic
Thiriez, the President of the French League

nice

Good move. Last season lmc sent the referees to England for capacity building and now the club administrators to la liga. Wonderful