League Management Company chairman, Shehu Dikko is excited at the prospects inherent in the first edition of the NPFL/LA LIGA Under-15 league which kicks off Monday April 10, across four centers.
The first phase of the event holding in Osogho and Owerri, will run from April 10-15, while the second phase holding in Abuja and Kaduna will run from April 17-21.
After that, the first and second placed finishers from all four groups will converge on Lagos from Tuesday April 25, for the last lap of the event, which is the quarter final, semi final and grand final.
LMC chairman Shehu Dikko says he will personally be at match venues to savour the expected excitements from two weeks of beautiful youth football.
“I can’t wait for this league to start. We have invested so much in making this a reality and we are confident, this is the beginning of bigger things to come. It all started with the “Future Champions competition in Soweto South Africa. The NPFL/LA LIGA partnership presented a team that did Nigeria proud losing only in the final to a more experience Atletico Madrid team.
That was our first experience but we made it all the way to the final. Now, we have realised the need to to catch them young and we are happy that the twenty league clubs are in tune with our agenda to groom the next super stars.
This tournament will afford every young player desperate to earn a living from football, the opportunity to have a good foundation. It doesn’t end there because each club will now have to retain their squads to form the bedrock of the main team. Remember, just last month, the NPFL/ LA LIGA partnership organised a train the trainers coaching course for youth coaches in Nigeria where we had over one hundred coaches across Nigeria in attendant. Most of those coaches will now be utilised by their various clubsides in this youth league to ascertain their knowledge of the game and how prepared they are for the big occasion.
We are doing all this in conjunction with the Nigeria football federation and the technical department of the NFF have been mandated to visit match centers to scout for talents. We are not happy that as defending champions, Nigeria did not qualify for the FIFA Under 17 Africa Championship talk less of defending the cup they won in 2015. The Under-20 team too did not make it past the qualifiers and that also was a massive blow for Nigeria football. Now we have decided to look inwards, we don’t want a situation where coaches pick players from academies and the usual conditions are attached at the expense of Nigeria.
This is the right way to go and hopefully in the next few years, some of this talents will rise to become household names in the Nigerian league. Today the likes of Stephen Odey of MFM and Nasifi Yahaya of Kano Pillars are some of the stars of the league. To imagine that these boys were not part of the Under-20 team that got knocked out in Lagos still baffles some of us who are keen disciples of the league. We will produce more Stephen Odey’s in the years to come and we hope Nigeria will be the biggest beneficiary he concluded”
Group A (Owerri) and group C ( Osogbo) will kick start the league from Monday April 10, to Friday April 15 after which group B (Abuja) and group D (Kaduna) will take off on Monday, next week.
Group A ( Owerri center) comprises of Abia warriors, Akwa United, Enyimba, FC Ifeanyi Ubah and Rivers United.
Group B ( Abuja center ) have the following teams involved; Rangers, Lobi stars, Tornadoes, Nasarawa United and Plateau United while Group C (Oshogbo center) comprises of MFM FC, Remo Stars, 3SC, Sunshine stars and ABS FC.
Group D ( Kaduna center ) comprises of El kanemi Warriors, Kano Pillars, Katsina United, Gombe United and Wikki Tourists.
The final match to decide the overall league champions will be played on April 30, in Lagos state.
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
