NPFL, La Liga sign partnership deal

The Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) sealed a five-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with La Liga of Spain for capacity building and idea exchange at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja on Tuesday, April 26.
It was signed between League Management Company (LMC) Chairman, Shehu Dikko, and La Liga President, Javier Tebas.
Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, and Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, Alfonso Barnvevo, counter-signed as witnesses.
Dalung and Barnvevo had on Monday, April 25 received officials of LMC and La Liga separately at their offices, giving their blessings on the cultural and trade ties strengthening partnership.
The signing ceremony was also attended by former Nigerian international players who played in La Liga clubs, including Victor Ikpeba (Real Betis), Mutiu Adepoju (Racing Santander and Real Sociedad), Gbenga Okunowo (Barcelona), and Haruna Babangida (Barcelona).
Dalung explained that the event was a new page in the history of Nigerian football administration, while Barnvevo described the partnership as a win-win for Spain and Nigeria.
Barnvevo said: “I know how Nigerians love football and I can tell you that in this relationship, Nigeria and Spain win. At the moment, Spain is the third biggest buyer of Nigeria’s crude oil.
“We already have strong social and economic relations and this MoU will further strengthen our sports. We take this relationship seriously because La Liga is one of the most important companies in Spain.”
Dalung added: “It will transcend beyond football to other areas as we shall rely on the expertise of La Liga to improve our league while we also have something to offer.
“It is a mark of confidence and trust in Nigerian football and we look forward to more robust engagements in the future.”
Dikko believes the partnership is a sweet beginning that will raise Nigeria’s football brand, saying implementation of the MoU adopting international procedures with the support of the NFF will bring unprecedented improvement to the game.
His words: “It is a beginning of a journey through a new road less travelled in an effort to deliver on our mandate to move Nigerian football forward along international best practices.
“We are pleased to be leading reforms, and to achieve that, we decided to align with global best practices by emulating those doing things well and right.
“We have a lot to learn from La Liga and we believe that La Liga also has some things to learn from us. Our objective is to be able to move with the times. We need to get our league to conform to international standards and best practices.
“La Liga is one of the best leagues in the world. It has some of the richest clubs in the world, and has a system which is very attractive to us.
“The structure and management of its clubs is fantastic as well as the way the government and the clubs relate to each other.
“La Liga also has legislation from the government to ensure the league is developed. We need to learn how it does that.
“There is a fight for the hearts and pockets of Nigerians to love and buy into Nigerian football, and La Liga is ready to work with us on that.
“Stakeholders are already getting interested as they see the best league the world associating with us. This will help us move forward and many more good things will follow.
“We shall move from this point to a point where we will in turn begin to support other leagues in Africa.”
Nduka Irabor, LMC pioneer chairman and now its chief executive officer, assured NPFL stakeholders of a robust benefit from the deal with La Liga.
“No doubt, we have witnessed remarkable improvement in the league in the past few years that the LMC came on board.
“This has been due to the efforts and contribution of the club chairmen and managers and other stakeholders working together.
“Now is time for all of us to commit even more to the development of the league to be able to harvest the benefits of this partnership with La Liga,” Irabor said.