By ADERONKE OJEDIRAN

The Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) on Thursday announced a partnership with LaLiga, the Spanish league, to train Nigerian players.

Gbenga Elegbeleye, the Chairman of the League Management Company (LMC) made the announcement at a press conference in Lagos.

Consequently, the NPFL inaugurated a Technical Committee to identify 11 All Star best league players at the end of the 2023/2024 league to train and play with the best of LaLiga teams.

Elegbeleye said the partnership was born out of the need to make the Nigerian league more viable and reward hard work.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Nigerian league league is scheduled to kick-off Sept. 9 across the country.

The technical committee for the All Stars is headed by Harrison Jala as chairman, with Austin Eguaveon, Daniel Amokachi, Godwin Nwa, Deji Omotoyinbo, Segun Agbede and Mitchel Obi as members.

The All-Star squad will travel to Spain for two weeks to play friendly games with top LaLiga teams, while the coach with the highest point will travel with the 11 All Star team.

“We undertook a thorough process of selecting members of this panel to cut across players, coaches and the media. We picked the committee members across board.

“We picked persons with the right pedigree and there is no doubt that they will give us the right squad each month. So, those selected understand that this is a call to service

“There’s an agreement we have secured with top LaLiga Clubs to host our NPFL All Stars squad to play against some other top teams in Spain. This will further enrich the experience of our players, as they will have the opportunity to play with the best,” he said.

Jala, the chairman of the committee, said the committee was ready for the task ahead.

He assured that the 2023/2024 league season would be more innovative in order to build on the success of the previous season.

“This is call to service; we intend to make fairness our watchword and give our league a facelift, and make it better than the 2022/2023 league season.

“If you check the calibre of people on the committee you’d see that they’re seasoned professionals in their irrespective fields. We are open to suggestions and ideas but fairness remains our watchword,” he said

Basil Kabbani, the Chairman of Propel Sports Africa, applauded the Group Managing Director of GTI Group and the NPFL.

He announced that additional three AI cameras were delivered ahead of the 2023/2024 season.

“Pixellos, the world-leading provider of AI-automated sports video and data solutions, and ITV Africa are proud to be in partnership with NPFL, GTI and Propel Sports Africa, revolutionising sports coverage in the country with a broad coverage of the league’s matches,” he said. (NAN)

•Stakeholders at the inauguration of Technical Committee for selection of All Star best league players to train with La Liga teams

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