Following discussions finalised 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) club officials will early next year undergo capacity building programmes in Spain 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 programme 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 programmes 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 concretisation 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

•Source: DailySportsng.com. Photo shows LMC Chairman Shehu Dikko.

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